Spectroscopic observations of active solar-analog stars with high X-ray luminosity, as a proxy of superflare stars

Abstract

Abstract Recent studies of solar-type superflare stars have suggested that even old slowly rotating stars similar to the Sun can have large starspots and superflares. We conducted high-dispersion spectroscopy of 49 nearby solar-analog stars (G-type main-sequence stars with Teff ≈ 5600–6000 K) identified as ROSAT soft X-ray sources, which are not binary stars from previous studies. We expected that these stars could be used as a proxy of bright solar-analog superflare stars, since superflare stars are expected to show strong X-ray luminosity. More than half (37) of the 49 target stars show no evidence of binarity, and their atmospheric parameters (temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity) are within the range of ordinary solar-analog stars. We measured the intensity of Ca ii 8542 and Hα lines, which are good indicators of the stellar chromospheric activity. The intensity of these lines indicates that all the target stars have large starspots. We also measured v sin i (projected rotational velocity) and lithium abundance for the target stars. Li abundance is a key to understanding the evolution of the stellar convection zone, which reflects the stellar age, mass and rotational history. We confirmed that many of the target stars rapidly rotate and have high Li abundance, compared with the Sun, as suggested by many previous studies. There are, however, also some target stars that rotate slowly (v sin i = 2–3 km s−1) and have low Li abundance like the Sun. These results support that old and slowly rotating stars similar to the Sun could have high activity levels and large starspots. This is consistent with the results of our previous studies of solar-type superflare stars. In the future, it is important to conduct long-term monitoring observations of these active solar-analog stars in order to investigate detailed properties of large starspots from the viewpoint of stellar dynamo theory.