Fitting formulae for the effects of binary interactions on lick indices and colors of stellar populations

Abstract

More than about 50% of stars are in binaries, but most stellar population studies take single star stellar population (ssSSP) models, which do not take binary interactions into account. In fact, the integrated peculiarities of ssSSPs are different from those of stellar populations with binary interactions (bsSSPs). Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the effects of binary interactions on the Lick indices and colors of populations in detail. We show some formulae for calculating the difference between the Lick indices and colors of bsSSPs, and those of ssSSPs. Twenty-five Lick indices and 12 colors are studied in this work. The results can be conveniently used for calculating the effects of binary interactions on stellar population studies and for adding the effects of binary interactions into present ssSSP models. The electronic data and fortran procedures in the paper can be obtained on request from the authors.