Resolving Vega and the inclination controversy with CHARA/MIRC

Abstract

Optical and infrared interferometers definitively established that the photometric standard Vega (alpha Lyrae) is a rapidly rotating star viewed nearly pole-on. Recent independent spectroscopic analyses could not reconcile the inferred inclination angle with the observed line profiles, preferring a larger inclination. In order to resolve this controversy, we observed Vega using the six-beam Michigan Infrared Combiner on the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy Array. With our greater angular resolution and dense (u,v)-coverage, we find Vega is rotating less rapidly and with a smaller gravity darkening coefficient than previous interferometric results. Our models are compatible with low photospheric macroturbulence and also consistent with the possible rotational period of ~0.71 days recently reported based on magnetic field observations. Our updated evolutionary analysis explicitly incorporates rapid rotation, finding Vega to have a mass of 2.15+0.10_-0.15 Msun and an age 700-75+150 Myrs, substantially older than previous estimates with errors dominated by lingering metallicity uncertainties (Z=0.006+0.003-0.002).

Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

References in corpus (6)

• Imaging the Surface of Altair
• Vega is a rapidly rotating star
• First Results from the CHARA Array VII: Long-Baseline Interferometric Measurements of Vega Consistent with a Pole-On, Rapidly Rotating Star
• Internal Gravity Waves Modulate the Apparent Misalignment of Exoplanets around Hot Stars
• Imaging and Modeling Rapidly Rotating Stars: Alpha Cephei and Alpha Ophiuchi
• The effect of rotation on the spectrum of Vega

Cited by in corpus (69)

• Intrinsic Colors, Temperatures, and Bolometric Corrections of Pre-Main Sequence Stars
• Fundamental Parameters of 87 Stars from the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer
• On the Inference of a Star's Inclination Angle from its Rotation Velocity and Projected Rotation Velocity
• SONS: The JCMT legacy survey of debris discs in the submillimetre
• Two new HATNet hot Jupiters around A stars, and the first glimpse at the occurrence rate of hot Jupiters from TESS
• A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris disc stars. III. First statistics based on 42 stars observed with CHARA/FLUOR
• Self-consistent 2D models of fast rotating early-type star
• BANYAN. V. A Systematic All-Sky Survey for New Very Late-Type Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs in Nearby Young Moving Groups
• No Sun-like dynamo on the active star $\zeta$ Andromedae from starspot asymmetry
• The Solar Neighborhood XXX: Fomalhaut C
• The Moving Group Targets of the SEEDS High-Contrast Imaging Survey of Exoplanets and Disks: Results and Observations from the First Three Years
• Spectral and spatial imaging of the Be+sdO binary phi Persei
• Orbits, Distance, and Stellar Masses of the Massive Triple Star Sigma Orionis
• The Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project (BDKP). IV. Radial Velocities of 85 Late-M and L dwarfs with MagE
• Predicting Stellar Angular Diameters from $V$, $I_C$, $H$, $K$ Photometry
• The Kappa Andromedae System: New Constraints on the Companion Mass, System Age & Further Multiplicity
• The Ages of A-Stars I: Interferometric Observations and Age Estimates for Stars in the Ursa Major Moving Group
• Surface Gravities for 228 M, L, and T Dwarfs in the NIRSPEC Brown Dwarf Spectroscopic Survey
• Alignment in star-debris disc systems seen by Herschel
• Young Stars Near Earth: The Octans-Near Association and Castor Moving Group
• Gas and dust around A-type stars at tens of Myr:signatures of cometary breakup
• High-contrast Imaging with Spitzer: Deep Observations of Vega, Fomalhaut, and epsilon Eridani
• Optical Interferometry of early-type stars with PAVO@CHARA. I. Fundamental stellar properties
• Multiplicity of Galactic Cepheids from long-baseline interferometry I. CHARA/MIRC detection of the companion of V1334 Cygni
• The orbit and stellar masses of the archetype colliding-wind binary WR 140
• Discovery of starspots on Vega - First spectroscopic detection of surface structures on a normal A-type star
• Star-disc (mis-)alignment in Rho Oph and Upper Sco: insights from spatially resolved disc systems with K2 rotation periods
• Contemporaneous Imaging Comparisons of the Spotted Giant $\sigma$ Geminorum Using Interferometric, Spectroscopic, and Photometric Data
• Multiplicity of Galactic Cepheids from long-baseline interferometry. IV. New detected companions from MIRC and PIONIER observations
• Dust Populations in the Iconic Vega Planetary System Resolved by ALMA
• VISION: A Six-Telescope Fiber-Fed Visible Light Beam Combiner for the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer
• SCExAO and GPI $YJH$ Band Photometry and Integral Field Spectroscopy of the Young Brown Dwarf Companion to HD 1160
• New bright optical spectrophotometric standards: A-type stars from the STIS Next Generation Spectral Library
• Physical properties of beta Lyr A and its opaque accretion disk
• EXPRES. III. Revealing the Stellar Activity Radial Velocity Signature of $\epsilon$ Eridani with Photometry and Interferometry
• Capabilities of future intensity interferometers for observing fast-rotating stars: imaging with two- and three-telescope correlations
• The dichotomy between strong and ultra-weak magnetic fields among intermediate-mass stars
• Imaging the inner astronomical unit of Herbig Be star HD 190073
• Gravity darkening in stars with surface differential rotation
• Stellar intensity interferometry of Vega in photon counting mode
• ARMADA I: Triple Companions Detected in B-Type Binaries alpha Del and nu Gem
• Detecting the Companions and Ellipsoidal Variations of RS CVn Primaries: II. omicron Draconis, a Candidate for Recent Low-Mass Companion Ingestion
• ARMADA II: Further Detections of Inner Companions to Intermediate Mass Binaries with Micro-Arcsecond Astrometry at CHARA and VLTI
• Dynamical Surface Imaging of lambda Andromedae
• A decade of radial-velocity monitoring of Vega and new limits on the presence of planets
• Long Term Evolution of Surface Features on the Red Supergiant AZ Cyg
• Critical study of the distribution of rotational velocities of Be stars; II: Differential rotation and some hidden effects interfering with the interpretation of the Vsin i parameter
• Interferometry of chemically peculiar stars: theoretical predictions vs. modern observing facilities
• Precision Orbit of $\delta$ Delphini and Prospects for Astrometric Detection of Exoplanets
• Visible and near-infrared spectro-interferometric analysis of the edge-on Be star $o$ Aquarii
• The Interferometric Binary Epsilon Cancri in Praesepe: Precise Masses and Age
• The evolved fast rotator Sargas. Stellar parameters and evolutionary status from VLTI/PIONIER and VLT/UVES
• The Habitable Zones of Rapidly Rotating Main Sequence A/F Stars
• Physical processes leading to surface inhomogeneities: the case of rotation
• On the rotational velocity of Sirius A
• Asymmetries on red giant branch surfaces from CHARA/MIRC optical interferometry
• How much large dust could be present in hot exozodiacal dust systems?
• Determination of Vega's rotational velocity based on the Fourier analysis of spectral line profiles
• The Small Separation A-Star Companion Population: First Results with CHARA/MIRC-X
• SEEDS direct imaging of the RV-detected companion to V450 Andromedae, and characterization of the system
• Searching for Planets Orbiting Vega with the James Webb Space Telescope
• One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog
• The Dynamic Inner Disk of a Planet Forming Star
• Two-dimensional models of early-type fast rotating stars: new challenges in stellar physics
• Planet Search with the Keck/NIRC2 Vortex Coronagraph in Ms-band for Vega
• Photometric determination of rotation axis inclination, rotation rate, and mass of rapidly rotating intermediate-mass stars
• Modeling the H$\alpha$ Emission Surrounding Spica using the Lyman Continuum from a Gravity-darkened Central Star
• Modeling rotating stars in two dimensions
• Fundamental properties of two rapidly rotating stars: Rasalhague and Alkaid