A comparison of stellar atmospheric parameters from the LAMOST and APOGEE datasets

We have compared stellar parameters, including temperature, gravity and metallicity, for common stars in the LAMOST DR2 and SDSS DR12/APOGEE datasets. It is found that the LAMOST dataset provides a more well-defined red clump feature than the APOGEE dataset in the Teff versus log g diagram. With this advantage, we have separated red clump stars from red giant stars, and attempt to establish calibrations between the two datasets for the two groups of stars. The results show that there is a good consistency in temperature with a calibration close to the one-to-one line, and we can establish a satisfactory metallicity calibration of[Fe/H]APOGEE= 1.18[Fe/H]LAMOST + 0.11 with a scatter of ～ 0.08 dex for both the red clump and red giant branch samples. For gravity, there is no correlation for red clump stars between the two datasets, and scatters around the calibrations of red giant stars are substantial. We found two main sources of scatter in log g for red giant stars. One is a group of stars with 0.00253 × Teff- 8.67 log g 2.6 located in the forbidden region, and the other is the contaminated red clump stars, which could be picked out from the unmatched region where stellar metallicity is not consistent with position in the Teff versus log g diagram. After excluding stars in these two regions,we have established two calibrations for red giant stars, log g APOGEE = 0.000615 ×Teff,LAMOST+ 0.697 × log g LAMOST- 2.208(σ = 0.150) for [Fe/H] -1 and log gAPOGEE= 0.000874×Teff,LAMOST+0.588×log g LAMOST-3.117(σ = 0.167)for [Fe/H] -1. The calibrations are valid for stars with Teff = 3800- 5400 K and log g = 0- 3.8 dex, and are useful in work aiming to combine the LAMOST and APOGEE datasets in a future study. In addition, we find that an SVM method based on asteroseismic log g is a good way to greatly improve the accuracy of gravity for these two regions, at least in the LAMOST dataset.     

Automatic determination of stellar atmospheric parameters and construction of stellar spectral templates of the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST)

A number of spectroscopic surveys have been carried out or are planned to study the origin of the Milky Way. Their exploitation requires reliable automated methods and softwares to measure the fundamental parameters of the stars. Adopting the ULySS package,we have tested the effect of different resolutions and signal-tonoise ratios(SNR) on the measurement of the stellar atmospheric parameters(effective temperature Teff,surface gravity log g,and metallicity [Fe/H]) . We show that ULySS is reliable for determ...     

M Dwarf catalog of LAMOST general survey data release one

We present a spectroscopic catalog of 93 619 M dwarfs from the first data release of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST)general survey. During sample selection, M giant contamination was eliminated using2 MASS photometry and Ca H/TiO molecular indices. For each spectrum, the spectral subtype and values are provided including radial velocity, Hα equivalent width, a series of prominent molecular band indices, and the metal–sensitive parameter ζ, as well as distances and the space motions for high S/N objects. In addition, Hα emission lines are measured to examine the magnetic activity properties of M dwarfs and 7179 active ones are found. In particular, a subsample with significant variation in magnetic activity is revealed through observations from different epochs. Finally, statistical analysis for this sample is performed, including the metallicity classification, the distribution of molecular band indices and their errors.     

Physical properties and catalog of EW-type eclipsing binaries observed by LAMOST

EW-type eclipsing binaries(hereafter called EWs)are strong interacting systems in which both component stars usually fill their critical Roche lobes and share a common envelope.Numerous EWs were discovered by several deep photometric surveys and there were about 40 785 EW-type binary systems listed in the international variable star index(VSX)by 2017 March 13.7938 of them were observed with LAMOST by 2016 November 30 and their spectral types were identified.Stellar atmospheric parameters of 5363 EW-type binary stars were determined based on good spectroscopic observations.In the paper,those EWs are cataloged and their properties are analyzed.The distributions of orbital period(P),effective temperature(T),gravitational acceleration(log(g)),metallicity([Fe/H])and radial velocity(RV)are presented for these observed EW-type systems.It is shown that about 80.6% of sample stars have metallicity below zero,indicating that EW-type systems are old stellar populations.This is in agreement with the conclusion that EW binaries are formed from moderately close binaries through angular momentum loss via magnetic braking that takes a few hundred million to a few billion years.The unusually high metallicities of a few percent of EWs may be caused by contamination of material from the evolution of unseen neutron stars or black holes in the systems.The correlations between orbital period and effective temperature,gravitational acceleration and metallicity are presented and their scatters are mainly caused by(i)the presence of third bodies and(ii)sometimes wrongly determined periods.It is shown that some EWs contain evolved component stars and the physical properties of EWs mainly depend on their orbital periods.It is found that extremely short-period EWs may be older than their long-period cousins because they have lower metallicities.This reveals that they have a longer timescale of pre-contact evolution and their formation and evolution are mainly driven by angular momentum loss via magnetic braking.     

Cataclysmic variables based on the stellar spectral survey LAMOST DR3

Big data in the form of stellar spectra from the spectroscopic survey associated with the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) are important for studying properties of cataclysmic variables(CVs). By cross matching the catalogs of CVs compiled with LAMOST DR3,acquired from October 2011 to July 2015, we obtained the first spectroscopic catalog for CVs observed by LAMOST with high signal to noise ratio, above 8. By integrating line profiles, their equivalent widths(EWs) of the Hα, Hβ, Hγ and Hδ, as well as He I 5876 and 6678 A? lines, were calculated. There were74 stellar spectra from 48 known CVs and three spectra from three new CV candidates. At the same time, we also collected their previously published EWs. Thirty-three objects had repeated spectra and30 stars showed spectral variability in the Hα line. Moreover, we carried out photometric follow-up studies for five CVs(UU Aqr, TT Tri, PX And, BP Lyn and RW Tri). We obtained nine new light curves and revised their linear ephemerides. For RW Tri, there is a possible oscillation with an amplitude of0.0031(2) days and a period of 47.6±0.4 years, which might be caused by a third body(brown dwarf)or magnetic activity cycle.     

Determining the orientation parameters of the ICRS/UCAC2 system using the Kharkov catalog of absolute stellar proper motions

The absolute proper motions of about 275 million stars from the Kharkov XPM catalog have been obtained by comparing their positions in the 2MASS and USNO-A2.0 catalogs with an epoch difference of about 45 yr for northern-hemisphere stars and about 17 yr for southern-hemisphere stars. The zero point of the system of absolute proper motions has been determined using 1.45 million galaxies. The equatorial components of the residual rotation vector of the ICRS/UCAC2 coordinate system relative to the system of extragalactic sources have been determined by comparing the XPM and UCAC2 stellar proper motions: ω _x,y,z = (−0.06, 0.17, −0.84) ± (0.15, 0.14, 0.14) mas yr⁻¹. These parameters have been calculated using about 1 million faintest UCAC2 stars with magnitudes R _UCAC2 > 16 ^m and J > 14 ^m . 7, for which the color and magnitude equation effects are negligible.     

A catalog of DB white dwarfs from the LAMOST DR5 and construction of templates

In this study, we employ machine learning to build a catalog of DB white dwarfs(DBWDs) from the LAMOST Data Release(DR) 5. Using known DBs from SDSS DR14, we selected samples of highquality DB spectra from the LAMOST database and applied them to train the machine learning process.Following the recognition procedure, we chose 351 DB spectra of 287 objects, 53 of which were new identifications. We then utilized all the DBWD spectra from both SDSS DR14 and LAMOST DR5 to construct DB templates for LAMOST 1 D pipeline reductions. Finally, by applying DB parameter models provided by D. Koester and the distance from Gaia DR2, we calculated the effective temperatures, surface gravities and distributions of the 3 D locations and velocities of all DBWDs.     

Matching CCD images to a stellar catalog using locality-sensitive hashing

The usage of a subset of observed stars in a CCD image to find their corresponding matched stars in a stellar catalog is an important issue in astronomical research. Subgraph isomorphic-based algorithms are the most widely used methods in star catalog matching. When more subgraph features are provided, the CCD images are recognized better. However, when the navigation feature database is large, the method requires more time to match the observing model. To solve this problem, this study investigates further and improves subgraph isomorphic matching algorithms. We present an algorithm based on a locality-sensitive hashing technique, which allocates quadrilateral models in the navigation feature database into different hash buckets and reduces the search range to the bucket in which the observed quadrilateral model is located. Experimental results indicate the effectivity of our method.     

The relative calibration of radial velocity for LAMOST medium resolution stellar spectra

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST)started a median-resolution spectroscopic(MRS,R～7500)survey since October 2018.The main sci...     

Stellar parameters of main sequence turn-off star candidates observed with LAMOST and Kepler

Main sequence turn-off(MSTO) stars have advantages as indicators of Galactic evolution since their ages can be robustly estimated from atmospheric parameters. Hundreds of thousands of MSTO stars have been selected from the LAMOST Galactic survey to study the evolution of the Galaxy,and it is vital to derive accurate stellar parameters. In this work, we select 150 MSTO star candidates from the MSTO star sample of Xiang that have asteroseismic parameters and determine accurate stellar parameters for these stars by combining asteroseismic parameters deduced from Kepler photometry and atmospheric parameters deduced from LAMOST spectra. With this sample, we examine the age determination as well as the contamination rate of the MSTO star sample. A comparison of age between this work and Xiang shows a mean difference of 0.53 Gyr(7%) and a dispersion of 2.71 Gyr(28%).The results show that 79 of the candidates are MSTO stars, while the others are contaminations from either main sequence or sub-giant stars. The contamination rate for the oldest stars is much higher than that for younger stars. The main cause for the high contamination rate is found to be the relatively large systematic bias in the LAMOST surface gravity estimates.     

Fundamental stellar parameters derived from the evolutionary tracks

The surface gravities and radii of stars are calculated for different MK spectral types using the masses of stars determined from their evolutionary tracks in the HR diagram and the most reliable values of effective temperatures and absolute bolometric magnitudes. MK spectral types are calibrated in absolute visual magnitudes using the studies ofM _v published since 1965. The calibration of MK types in temperatures is based on the newest investigations including the results both from the ultraviolet and the infrared. The obtained masses, gravities, and the mass-luminosity relationship show reasonable agreement with independent observational data.     

Chromospheric activity properties and search for subdwarfs and extreme subdwarfs based on LAMOST stellar spectral survey

Big data obtained from a stellar spectroscopic survey carried out using the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, also known as Guo Shou Jing telescope) provide important information for studying chromospheric activity, variability of chromospheric activity, and chromospheric statistical properties, and for searching subdwarfs and extreme subdwarfs. Using as chromospheric activity indicator the H_α line, we detected 6391 active M stars among the 99741 stars in the M-star catalogue of the LAMOST survey. We also obtained the relationship between the fraction of active stars and the spectral types, which is consistent to previous results. We also studied the effects of activity on broadband photometric colors, and we did not see significant differences between active and inactive M stars. Using as spectroscopic molecular indicators the CaH123 and TiO5 lines, we found 1288 subdwarfs (including 120 active subdwarfs). We also found 15 extreme subdwarf (2 active extreme subdwarf) candidates. Our subdwarf candidates are slightly redder by about 0.05 mag in g-r compared with dwarfs using the g-r and r-i, and g-r and i-z color diagrams. Using our active M-star catalogue, we found that 898 stars exhibited H_α emission in at least two exposures (170 of them in at least three exposures). Among these 170 stars, 163 of them show variability in H_α emission on long timescales (more than 2.5 h). Furthermore, 34 stars show variability over short timescales (less than 2.5 h), and 29 actives show variability over both short and long time scales.     

The Kharkiv XC1 catalog of stellar positions and proper motions as compared to modern catalogs

The positions and proper motions of the stars from the XC1 catalog are compared with the data of other modern catalogs of stars and extragalactic objects. We demonstrate that the XC1 system is free from significant systematic errors. The external error in the proper motions of the stars fainter than 15 ^m is estimated at 3–5 mas/yr, depending on magnitude.     

Accuracy of stellar parameters determined from multicolor photometry

The development and application of new methods for intelligent analysis and extraction of information from digital sky surveys carried out in various spectral domains have now become a popular field in astrophysical research and, in particular, in stellar studies. Modern large-scale photometric surveys provide data for 10⁵–10⁶ relatively faint objects, and the lack of spectroscopic data can be compensated by the cross identification of the objects followed by an analysis of all catalogued photometric data. In this paper we investigate the possibility of determining the effective temperature, surface gravity, total extinction, and the total-to-selective extinction ratio based on the photometry provided in the 2MASS, SDSS, and GALEX surveys, and estimate the accuracy of the inferred parameters. We use a library of theoretical spectra to compute the magnitudes of stars in the photometric bands of the above surveys for various sets of input parameters. We compare the differences between the computed magnitudes with the errors of the corresponding surveys. We find that stellar parameters can be computed over a sizable domain of the parameter space. We estimate the accuracy of the resulting parameters. We show that the presence of far-ultraviolet data in the available set of observed magnitudes increases the accuracy of the inferred parameters.     

LAMOST/GALAXY计划:利用LAMOST研究银河系

本文讨论了利用LAMOST作银河系研究的科学意义及可能性；并提出具体实施LAMOST/GAIAXY计划的初步方案。     

The LAMOST spectroscopic survey of globular clusters in M31and M33.I.catalog and new identifications

We present a catalog of 908 objects observed with the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) in fields in the vicinity of M31 and M33, targeted as globular clusters(GCs) and candidates. The targets include known GCs and candidates selected from the literature, as well as new candidates selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS). Analysis shows that 356 of them are likely GCs with various confidence levels, while the remaining ones turn out to be background galaxies and quasars, stars and H II regions in M31 or foreground Galactic stars. The 356 likely GCs include 298 bona fide GCs and 26 candidates known in the literature. Three candidates, selected from the Revised Bologna Catalog of M31 GCs and candidates(RBC) and one possible cluster from Johnson et al., are confirmed to be bona fide clusters. We search for new GCs in the halo of the M31 among the new candidates selected from the SDSS photometry. Based on radial velocities yielded by LAMOST spectra and visual examination of the SDSS images, we find 28 objects, 5bona fide and 23 likely GCs. Among the five bona fide GCs, three have been recently discovered independently by others, and the remaining 25 are our new identifications,including two bona fide ones. The newly identified objects fall at projected distances ranging from 13 to 265 kpc from M31. Of the two newly discovered bona fide GCs,one is located near M33, probably a GC belonging to M33. The other bona fide GC falls on the Giant Stream with a projected distance of 78 kpc from M31. Of the 23 newly identified likely GCs, one has a projected distance of about 265 kpc from M31 and could be an intergalactic cluster.     

A non-parametric method of estimating the physical parameters of stellar atmosphere

The physical parameters of stellar atmosphere, e.g. the effective temperature, surface gravity and chemical abundance, are the main factors for the differences in stellar spectra, and the automatic measurement of these parameters is an important content in the automatic processing of the immense amount of spectral data provided by LAMOST and other patrol telescopes. Aiming at the estimation of the physical parameters for every star in large samples of stellar spectral data, a variable window-width algorithm is proposed in this article. It consists of the following three steps: (1) A PCA (principal component analysis) treatment of historical stellar spectral data is carried out to obtain a low-dimensional characteristic data of the spectra. (2) Establish the correlation between the characteristic data and the physical parameters using a non-parametric estimator with variable window-width. (3) By means of this estimator, the three physical parameters of the star are directly calculated. As shown by results of experiments, in comparison with the fixed window-width estimator and other algorithms reported in literature, our algorithm is more accurate and robust.     

Estimating stellar atmospheric parameters based on Lasso features

With the rapid development of large scale sky surveys like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey （SDSS）, GAIA and LAMOST （Guoshoujing telescope）, stellar spectra can be obtained on an ever-increasing scale. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate stel- lar atmospheric parameters such as Teff, log g and [Fe/H] automatically to achieve the scientific goals and make full use of the potential value of these observations. Feature selection plays a key role in the automatic measurement of atmospheric parameters. We propose to use the least absolute shrinkage selection operator （Lasso） algorithm to select features from stellar spectra. Feature selection can reduce redundancy in spectra, alleviate the influence of noise, improve calculation speed and enhance the robustness of the estimation system. Based on the extracted features, stellar atmospheric param- eters are estimated by the support vector regression model. Three typical schemes are evaluated on spectral data from both the ELODIE library and SDSS. Experimental results show the potential performance to a certain degree. In addition, results show that our method is stable when applied to different spectra.