Methods to Characterise Exoplanet Host Stars from Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper reviews spectroscopic methods for characterizing exoplanet host stars, detailing how stellar parameters are derived and combined with other data to determine stellar properties crucial for exoplanet studies.

Contribution

It provides an overview of established spectroscopic techniques and theoretical models for deriving stellar parameters from spectra, enhancing exoplanet host star characterization.

Findings

Spectroscopy effectively determines stellar temperature, gravity, and metallicity.

Combining spectroscopy with photometry and parallax yields stellar radii and masses.

The chapter illustrates methods with examples and theoretical models.

Abstract

A key to understand exoplanets is characterisation of their host stars. One of the most powerful tools to characterise stellar properties like effective temperature, surface gravity and metallicity, is spectroscopy based on observations of stellar atmospheres. This chapter describes the stellar parameters that can be derived from a spectrum with examples of well established methods and theoretical model atmospheres. Combined with photometry and parallax measurements, the outcome of the spectroscopic modelling can be used to derive stellar radii and masses.