A Recipe for Finding Stellar Radii, Temperatures, Surface Gravities, Metallicities, and Masses Using Spectral Lines

Abstract

A recipe based on physical principles employs the observed equivalent widths of 10 spectral lines to model the photosphere of a target star. Coupled with the visual magnitude and an absolute flux calibration, the recipe yields the angular radius, effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity. With the addition of a parallax, a linear radius and a mass estimate are added to the results. The method is applied to a sample of 26 G and K stars that span luminosity classes V to IIIa. The recipe-determined angular radii agree with the interferometer radii and have comparable errors. But unlike interferometers, the recipe is not limited to sizes ≳1 mas. The veracity of the other recipe-derived parameters is supported by numerous comparisons with previously published values.