AFar Ultraviolet Spectroscopic ExplorerSurvey of Coronal Forbidden Lines in Late‐Type Stars

Abstract

We present a survey of coronal forbidden lines detected in Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spectra of nearby stars. Two strong coronal features, Fe XVIII λ974 and Fe XIX λ1118, are observed in 10 of the 26 stars in our sample. Various other coronal forbidden lines, observed in solar flares, also were sought but not detected. The Fe XVIII feature, formed at log T = 6.8 K, appears to be free of blends, whereas the Fe XIX line can be corrupted by a C I multiplet. FUSE observations of these forbidden iron lines at spectral resolution λ/Δλ ~ 15,000 provides the opportunity to study dynamics of hot coronal plasmas. We find that the velocity centroid of the Fe XVIII feature deviates little from the stellar rest frame, confirming that the hot coronal plasma is confined. The observed line widths generally are consistent with thermal broadening at the high temperatures of formation and show little indication of additional turbulent broadening. The fastest rotating stars, 31 Com, α Aur Ab, and AB Dor, show evidence for excess broadening beyond the thermal component and the photospheric v sin i. The anomalously large widths in these fast-rotating targets may be evidence for enhanced rotational broadening, consistent with emission from coronal regions extending an additional ΔR ~ 0.4-1.3 R* above the stellar photosphere, or represent the turbulent broadening caused by flows along magnetic loop structures. For the stars in which Fe XVIII is detected, there is an excellent correlation between the observed Rontgensatellit (ROSAT) 0.2-2.0 keV soft X-ray flux and the coronal forbidden line flux. As a result, Fe XVIII is a powerful new diagnostic of coronal thermal conditions and dynamics that can be utilized to study high-temperature plasma processes in late-type stars. In particular, FUSE provides the opportunity to obtain observations of important transition region lines in the far-UV, as well as simultaneous measurements of soft X-ray coronal emission, using the Fe XVIII coronal forbidden line.