Absolute Lineshifts - A new diagnostic for stellar hydrodynamics

Abstract

For hydrodynamic model atmospheres, absolute lineshifts are becoming an observable diagnostic tool beyond the classical ones of line-strength, -width, -shape, and -asymmetry. This is the wavelength displacement of different types of spectral lines away from the positions naively expected from the Doppler shift caused by stellar radial motion. Caused mainly by correlated velocity and brightness patterns in granular convection, such absolute lineshifts could in the past be studied only for the Sun (since the relative Sun-Earth motion, and the ensuing Doppler shift is known). For other stars, this is now becoming possible thanks to three separate developments: (a) Astrometric determination of stellar radial motion; (b) High-resolution spectrometers with accurate wavelength calibration, and (c) Accurate laboratory wavelengths for several atomic species. Absolute lineshifts offer a tool to segregate various 2- and 3-dimensional models, and to identify non-LTE effects in line formation.