Using limb darkening to measure fundamental parameters of stars

Abstract

Context. Limb darkening is an important tool for understanding stellar atmospheres, but most observations measuring limb darkening assume various parameterizations that yield no significant information about the structure of stellar atmospheres. Aims. We use a specific limb-darkening relation to study how the best-fit coefficients relate to fundamental stellar parameters from spherically symmetric model stellar atmospheres. Methods. Using a grid of spherically symmetric Atlas model atmospheres, we compute limb-darkening coefficients, and develop a novel method to predict fundamental stellar parameters. Results. We find our proposed method predicts the mass of stellar atmosphere models given only the radius and limb-darkening coefficients, suggesting that microlensing, interferometric, transit and eclipse observations can constrain stellar masses. Conclusions. This novel method demonstrates that limb-darkening parameterizations contain important information about the structure of stellar atmospheres, with the potential to be a valuable tool for measuring stellar masses.

8 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, A&A accepted

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• Using Stellar Limb-Darkening to Refine the Properties of HD 209458b
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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Efficient, uninformative sampling of limb darkening coefficients for two-parameter laws
• Spherically-symmetric model stellar atmospheres and limb darkening I: limb-darkening laws, gravity-darkening coefficients and angular diameter corrections for red giant stars
• Spherically symmetric model stellar atmospheres and limb darkening II: limb-darkening laws, gravity-darkening coefficients and angular diameter corrections for FGK dwarf stars
• Limb Darkening and Planetary Transits: Testing Center-to-limb Intensity Variations and Limb-Darkening Directly from Model Stellar Atmospheres
• Stellar atmospheres, atmospheric extension and fundamental parameters: weighing stars using the stellar mass index
• Indicators of Mass in Spherical Stellar Atmospheres