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| Paper: |
Probing Stellar Photospheres with Long-Baseline Interferometry |
| Volume: |
487, Resolving The Future Of Astronomy With Long-Baseline Interferometry |
| Page: |
35 |
| Authors: |
Aufdenberg, J. P. |
| Abstract: |
Long-baseline interferometry at optical and near-IR bands provides not
only the angular sizes and mean effective temperatures of stars but
also the means to probe temperature variations across and within
stellar photospheres. Spatially resolving the brightness distribution
over a slowly-rotating star measures limb darkening, key to
determining vertical temperature gradients within the
photosphere. These measurements constrain, for example,
state-of-the-art stellar atmosphere codes with 3-D convection. There
is also the potential to measure limb darkening in hotter stars to
better constrain their ionizing fluxes. In low-gravity photospheres,
where changes in optical depth correspond to physical depths which are
a significant fraction of a star's radius, the interferometric angular
sizes are more model dependent than for more compact stars. Accurate
and precise measurement of radii for single stars requires both good angular
diameters and distances. Many bright interferometric targets lack
distances that are good to 1%. |
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