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Abstract Based on a template-matching method, we estimate the barium (Ba) abundances for stellar spectra from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) Medium-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey (MRS). The Ba abundances of 198,011 stars have been determined from MRS spectra with signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) > 40 combined with the stellar atmospheric parameters from the LAMOST Low-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey DR9 by the LAMOST Stellar Parameter Pipeline. The uncertainties in the Ba abundances from the LAMOST MRS spectra are less than 0.3 dex when S/N exceeds 40, which align closely with the results based on the high-resolution UVES spectra from the Gaia-ESO survey obtained by spectral synthesis. Further analysis of Ba abundances from repeated observations of the same stars reveals that random errors related to spectral quality remain below 0.3 dex at the same S/N, with a systematic overestimation for the low-S/N spectra. This extensive sample of stellar Ba abundances will enhance studies of thes-,i-, andr-processes, and deepen our understanding of the chemical-evolution history of the Milky Way.
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Uncertainty of Line-of-sight Velocity Measurements of Faint Stars from Low- and Medium-resolution Optical Spectra
Abstract Massively multiplexed spectrographs will soon gather large statistical samples of stellar spectra. The accurate estimation of uncertainties on derived parameters, such as the line-of-sight velocityvlos, especially for spectra with low signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns), is paramount. We generated an ensemble of simulated optical spectra of stars as if they were observed with low- and medium-resolution fiber-fed instruments on an 8 m class telescope, similar to the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph, and determinedvlosby fitting stellar templates to the simulated spectra. We compared the empirical errors of the derived parameters—calculated from an ensemble of simulations—to the asymptotic errors determined from the Fisher matrix, as well as from Monte Carlo sampling of the posterior probability. We confirm that the uncertainty ofvlosscales with the inverse square root of the S/N, but also show how this scaling breaks down at low S/N and analyze the error and bias caused by template mismatch. We outline a computationally optimized algorithm to fit multiexposure data and provide a mathematical model of stellar spectrum fitting that maximizes the so called significance, which allows for calculating the error from the Fisher matrix analytically. We also introduce the effective line count, and provide a scaling relation to estimate the errors ofvlosmeasurements based on stellar type. Our analysis covers a range of stellar types with parameters that are typical of the Galactic outer disk and halo, together with analogs of stars in M31 and in satellite dwarf spheroidal galaxies around the Milky Way.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2233781
- PAR ID:
- 10531617
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astronomical Journal
- Volume:
- 168
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0004-6256
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 110
- Size(s):
- Article No. 110
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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