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| openaire: EC/H2020/818665/EU//UniSDyn Funding Information: Acknowledgements. M.J.K. and J.J.L. acknowledge the Academy of Finland "ReSoLVE". Centre of Excellence (project number 307411) and the Max Planck Research Group 'SOLSTAR' funding. T.H. acknowledges the financial support from the Academy of Finland for the project SOLSTICE (decision no. 324161). T.W. acknowledges financial support from the Alfred Kordelin foundation. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 818665 "UniSDyn"). The automated astronomy program at Tennessee State University has been supported by NASA, NSF, TSU and the State of Tennessee through the Centers of Excellence program. The authors thank Lúcia Duarte for helpful discussions about the model–observation comparisons. Publisher Copyright: © ESO 2022. ; Aims: Previous studies have related surface temperature maps, obtained with the Doppler imaging (DI) technique, of LQ Hya with long-term photometry. Here, we compare surface magnetic field maps, obtained with the Zeeman Doppler imaging (ZDI) technique, with contemporaneous photometry, with the aim of quantifying the star's magnetic cycle characteristics. Methods: We inverted Stokes IV spectropolarimetry, obtained with the HARPSpol and ESPaDOnS instruments, into magnetic field and surface brightness maps using a tomographic inversion code that models high signal-to-noise ratio mean line profiles produced by the least squares deconvolution (LSD) technique. The maps were compared against long-term ground-based photometry acquired with the T3 0.40 m Automatic Photoelectric Telescope (APT) at Fairborn Observatory, which offers a proxy for the spot cycle of the star, as well as with chromospheric Ca ¯II H&K activity derived from the observed spectra. Results: The magnetic field and surface brightness maps reveal similar patterns relative to previous DI and ZDI studies: non-axisymmetric polar magnetic field ...

With the purpose of assessing classic spectroscopic methods on high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio spectra in the near-infrared wavelength region, we selected a sample of 65 F-, G-, and K-type stars observed with CARMENES, the new, ultra-stable, double channel spectrograph at the 3.5 m Calar Alto telescope. We computed their stellar atmospheric parameters (Teti, log g, 4, and [Fell I]) by means of the STEPAR code, a PYTHON implementation of the equivalent width method that employs the 2017 version of the MOOG code and a grid of MARCS model atmospheres. We compiled four Fe 1 and Fe tl line lists suited to metal-rich dwarfs, metal-poor dwarfs, metal-rich giants, and metal-poor giants that cover the wavelength range from 5300 to 17 100 A, thus substantially increasing the number of identified Fe! and Felt lines up to 653 and 23, respectively, We examined the impact of the near-infrared Fe and Fen lines upon our parameter determinations after an exhaustive literature search, placing special emphasis on the 14 Gala benchmark stars contained in our sample, Even though our parameter determinations remain in good agreement with the literature values, the increase in the number of Fel and Feu lines when the near-infrared region is taken into account reveals a deeper Teff scale that might stem from a higher sensitivity of the near-infrared lines to Tff.C 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society ; CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano en Andaluc ' ia at Calar Alto (CAHA). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Plank Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de InvestigacionesCientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Plank-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica deAndalucia, LandessternwarteKonigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Institut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenberg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano en Andalucia), with additional contributions by the Ministerio de Asuntos Economicos y Transformacion Digital, the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 Blue Planets around Red Stars', the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. The authors acknowledge financial support from the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) through national funds (PTDC/FIS-AST/28953/2017) and by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) through COMPETE2020 -Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI01-0145-FEDER-028953), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion through fellowship FPU15/01476, and projects AYA2016-79425C3-1/2/3-P, and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. JIGH acknowledges financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion under the 2013 Ramon y Cajal programme RYC-201314875, and from the project AYA2017-86389-P. This work has made use of the VALD database, operated at Uppsala University, the Institute of Astronomy RAS in Moscow, and the University of Vienna. We thank Calar Alto Observatory for the allocation of director's discretionary time to this programme. EM would also like to warmly thank the staff at the Hamburger Sternwarte for their hospitality during his stay funded by project EST18/00162 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion. Based on data from the CARMENES data archive at CAB (INTA-CSIC). ; Peer reviewed

Stellar activity is ubiquitously encountered in M dwarfs and often characterised by the Hα line. In the most active M dwarfs, Hα is found in emission, sometimes with a complex line profile. Previous studies have reported extended wings and asymmetries in the Hα line during flares. We used a total of 473 high-resolution spectra of 28 active M dwarfs obtained by the CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-Earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) spectrograph to study the occurrence of broadened and asymmetric Hα line profiles and their association with flares, and examine possible physical explanations. We detected a total of 41 flares and 67 broad, potentially asymmetric, wings in Hα. The broadened Hα lines display a variety of profiles with symmetric cases and both red and blue asymmetries. Although some of these line profiles are found during flares, the majority are at Least not obviously associated with flaring. We propose a mechanism similar to coronal rain or chromospheric downward condensations as a cause for the observed red asymmetries; the symmetric cases May also be caused by Stark broadening. We suggest that blue asymmetries are associated with rising material, and our results are consistent with a prevalence of blue asymmetries during the flare onset. Besides the Hα asymmetries, we find some cases of additional line asymmetries in He i D, Na i D lines, and the He i line at 10 830 taken all simultaneously thanks to the large wavelength coverage of CARMENES. Our study shows that asymmetric Hα lines are a rather common phenomenon in M dwarfs and need to be studied in more detail to obtain a better understanding of the atmospheric dynamics in these objects.© ESO 2018. ; B.F. acknowledges funding by the DFG under Cz 222/1-1 and thanks E. N. Johnson and L. Tal-Or for helpful remarks. CARMENES is an instrument of the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars>, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia.

The new CARMENES instrument comprises two high-resolution and high-stability spectrographs that are used to search for habitable planets around M dwarfs in the visible and near-infrared regime via the Doppler technique. Aims. Characterising our target sample is important for constraining the physical properties of any planetary systems that are detected. The aim of this paper is to determine the fundamental stellar parameters of the CARMENES M-dwarf target sample from high-resolution spectra observed with CARMENES. We also include several M-dwarf spectra observed with other high-resolution spectrographs, that is CAFE, FEROS, and HRS, for completeness. Methods. We used a chi(2) method to derive the stellar parameters effective temperature T-eff, surface gravity log g, and metallicity [Fe/H] of the target stars by fitting the most recent version of the PHOENIX-ACES models to high-resolution spectroscopic data. These stellar atmosphere models incorporate a new equation of state to describe spectral features of low-temperature stellar atmospheres. Since Teff, log g, and [Fe/H] show degeneracies, the surface gravity is determined independently using stellar evolutionary models. Results. We derive the stellar parameters for a total of 300 stars. The fits achieve very good agreement between the PHOENIX models and observed spectra. We estimate that our method provides parameters with uncertainties of sigma(Teff) = 51 K, sigma(logg) = 0 : 07, and sigma[(Fe/H)] = 0.16, and show that atmosphere models for low-mass stars have significantly improved in the last years. Our work also provides an independent test of the new PHOENIX-ACES models, and a comparison for other methods using low-resolution spectra. In particular, our effective temperatures agree well with literature values, while metallicities determined with our method exhibit a larger spread when compared to literature results.© ESO 2018. ; We thank the anonymous referee for her/his comments that helped to improve the quality of this paper. VMP would like to thank Denis Shulyak for fruitful discussions. CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Institut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars>, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. IR acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through grant ESP2014-57495-C2-2-R. VJSB is supported by programme AYA2015-69350-C3-2-P from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronomico Hispano Aleman (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by the Max-Planck Institut fur Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia. This research has made use of the VizieR catalogue access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France. The original description of the VizieR service was published in A&AS 143, 23.

Context. Stellar activity poses one of the main obstacles for the detection and characterisation of small exoplanets around cool stars, as it can induce radial velocity (RV) signals that can hide or mimic the presence of planetary companions. Several indicators of stellar activity are routinely used to identify activity-related signals in RVs, but not all indicators trace exactly the same activity effects, nor are any of them always effective in all stars. Aims. We evaluate the performance of a set of spectroscopic activity indicators for M dwarf stars with different masses and activity levels with the aim of finding a relation between the indicators and stellar properties. Methods. In a sample of 98 M dwarfs observed with CARMENES, we analyse the temporal behaviour of RVs and nine spectroscopic activity indicators: cross-correlation function (CCF) full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM), CCF contrast, CCF bisector inverse slope (BIS), RV chromatic index (CRX), differential line width (dLW), and indices of the chromospheric lines Hα and calcium infrared triplet. Results. A total of 56 stars of the initial sample show periodic signals related to activity in at least one of these ten parameters. RV is the parameter for which most of the targets show an activity-related signal. CRX and BIS are effective activity tracers for the most active stars in the sample, especially stars with a relatively high mass, while for less active stars, chromospheric lines perform best. FWHM and dLW show a similar behaviour in all mass and activity regimes, with the highest number of activity detections in the low-mass, high-activity regime. Most of the targets for which we cannot identify any activity-related signals are stars at the low-mass end of the sample (i.e. with the latest spectral types). These low-mass stars also show the lowest RV scatter, which indicates that ultracool M dwarfs could be better candidates for planet searches than earlier types, which show larger RV jitter. Conclusions. Our results show that the spectroscopic activity indicators analysed behave differently, depending on the mass and activity level of the target star. This underlines the importance of considering different indicators of stellar activity when studying the variability of RV measurements. Therefore, when assessing the origin of an RV signal, it is critical to take into account a large set of indicators, or at least the most effective ones considering the characteristics of the star, as failing to do so may lead to false planet claims. © ESO 2021. ; CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Institut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars", the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. Based on data from the CARMENES data archive at CAB (INTA-CSIC). We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund through grant PGC2018-098153-B-C33, the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme, PID2019-109522GB-C51/2/3/4 (CAB, IAA, IAC, UCM), and UKRI FLF grant MR/S035214/1. SVJ acknowledges the support of the DFG priority program SPP 1992 "Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets (JE 701/5-1). ; With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709. ; Peer reviewed

Small low-mass stars are favourable targets for the detection of rocky habitable planets. In particular, planetary systems in the solar neighbourhood are interesting and suitable for precise characterization. The RedDots campaigns seek to discover rocky planets orbiting nearby low-mass stars. The 2018 campaign targeted GJ 1061, which is the 20th nearest star to the Sun. For three consecutive months we obtained nightly, high-precision radial velocity measurements with the HARPS spectrograph. We analysed these data together with archival HARPS data. We report the detection of three planet candidates with periods of 3.204 +/- 0.001, 6.689 +/- 0.005, and 13.03 +/- 0.03 d, which are close to 1:2:4 period commensurability. After several considerations related to the properties of the noise and sampling, we conclude that a fourth signal is most likely explained by stellar rotation, although it may be due to a planet. The proposed three-planet system (and the potential four-planet solution) is long-term dynamically stable. Planet-planet gravitational interactions are below our current detection threshold. The minimum masses of the three planets range from 1.4 +/- 0.2 to 1.8 +/- 0.3 M-circle plus. Planet d, with msin i = 1.64 +/- 0.24 M-circle plus, receives a similar amount of energy as Earth receives from the Sun. Consequently it lies within the liquid-water habitable zone of the star and has a similar equilibrium temperature to Earth. GJ 1061 has very similar properties to Proxima Centauri but activity indices point to lower levels of stellar activity. ; German Research Foundation (DFG) FOR2544 DR 281/32-1 JE 701/3-1 DFG priority program SPP 1992 'Ex-ploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets' RE 1664/18 Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion AYA201679425-C3-3-P ESP2017-87676-C5-2-R ESP2017-87143-R Centre of Excellence 'Severo Ochoa' Instituto de Astrof'rasolar Planets' SEV-2017-0709 Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ST/P000584/1 3180405 Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU) European Union (EU) ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R ESP2016-80435-C2-2-R Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme STFC Consolidated Grant ST/P000592/1 Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation Mc Donald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin National Research Foundation - South Africa 072.C-0488 183.C-0437 0101.C-0516(A) 198.C-0838(A)

We use spectra from CARMENES, the Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs, to search for periods in chromospheric indices in 16 M0-M2 dwarfs. We measure spectral indices in the Hα, the Ca II infrared triplet (IRT), and the Na I D lines to study which of these indices are best-suited to finding rotation periods in these stars. Moreover, we test a number of different period-search algorithms, namely the string length method, the phase dispersion minimisation, the generalized Lomb-Scargle periodogram, and the Gaussian process regression with quasi-periodic kernel. We find periods in four stars using Hα and in five stars using the Ca II IRT, two of which have not been found before. Our results show that both Hα and the Ca II IRT lines are well suited for period searches, with the Ca II IRT index performing slightly better than Hα. Unfortunately, the Na I D lines are strongly affected by telluric airglow, and we could not find any rotation period using this index. Further, different definitions of the line indices have no major impact on the results. Comparing the different search methods, the string length method and the phase dispersion minimisation perform worst, while Gaussian process models produce the smallest numbers of false positives and non-detections.© 2019 ESO. ; B.F. acknowledges funding by the DFG under Cz 222/1-1. CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Institut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars>, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. ; Peer Reviewed

Context. Previous simulations predicted the activity-induced radial-velocity (RV) variations of M dwarfs to range from ∼1 cm s to ∼1 km s, depending on various stellar and activity parameters. Aims. We investigate the observed relations between RVs, stellar activity, and stellar parameters of M dwarfs by analyzing CARMENES high-resolution visual-channel spectra (0.5-1μm), which were taken within the CARMENES RV planet survey during its first 20 months of operation. Methods. During this time, 287 of the CARMENES-sample stars were observed at least five times. From each spectrum we derived a relative RV and a measure of chromospheric Hα emission. In addition, we estimated the chromatic index (CRX) of each spectrum, which is a measure of the RV wavelength dependence. Results. Despite having a median number of only 11 measurements per star, we show that the RV variations of the stars with RV scatter of >10 m s and a projected rotation velocity v sin i > 2 km s are caused mainly by activity. We name these stars >active RV-loud stars> and find their occurrence to increase with spectral type: from ∼3% for early-type M dwarfs (M0.0-2.5 V) through ∼30% for mid-type M dwarfs (M3.0-5.5 V) to >50% for late-type M dwarfs (M6.0-9.0 V). Their RV-scatter amplitude is found to be correlated mainly with v sin i. For about half of the stars, we also find a linear RV-CRX anticorrelation, which indicates that their activity-induced RV scatter is lower at longer wavelengths. For most of them we can exclude a linear correlation between RV and Hα emission. Conclusions. Our results are in agreement with simulated activity-induced RV variations in M dwarfs. The RV variations of most active RV-loud M dwarfs are likely to be caused by dark spots on their surfaces, which move in and out of view as the stars rotate. © ESO 2018. ; We thank the anonymous referee for their helpful comments and suggestions. We also thank the dedicated CAHA observers and technical staff for ensuring that the CARMENES measurements over the last two years were of high quality. CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars>, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. L.T. also thanks Tsevi Mazeh and Shay Zucker from Tel-Aviv University for their useful comments on this work.

There are several strong K I lines found in the spectra of M dwarfs, among them the doublet near 7700 Å and another doublet near 12 500 Å. We study these optical and near-infrared doublets in a sample of 324 M dwarfs, observed with CARMENES, the high-resolution optical and near-infrared spectrograph at Calar Alto, and investigate how well the lines can be used as photospheric and chromospheric diagnostics. Both doublets have a dominant photospheric component in inactive stars and can be used as tracers of effective temperature and gravity. For variability studies using the optical doublet, we concentrate on the red line component because this is less prone to artefacts from telluric correction in individual spectra. The optical doublet lines are sensitive to activity, especially for M dwarfs later than M5.0 V where the lines develop an emission core. For earlier type M dwarfs, the red component of the optical doublet lines is also correlated with Hα activity. We usually find positive correlation for stars with Hα in emission, while early-type M stars with Hα in absorption show anti-correlation. During flares, the optical doublet lines can exhibit strong fill-in or emission cores for our latest spectral types. On the other hand, the near-infrared doublet lines very rarely show correlation or anti-correlation to Hα and do not change line shape significantly even during the strongest observed flares. Nevertheless, the near-infrared doublet lines show notable resolved Zeeman splitting for about 20 active stars which allows to estimate the magnetic fields B. © ESO 2022. ; B.F. acknowledges funding by the DFG under Schm 1032/69-1. CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almería, Spain). D.S. acknowledges the financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709) We acknowledge financial support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the ERDF through projects PID2019-109522GB-C5[1:4]/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 PGC2018-098153-B-C33 and the Centre of Excellence "Severo Ochoa" and "María de Maeztu" awards to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (CEX2019-000920-S), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709), and Centro de Astrobiología (MDM-2017-0737), and the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme. CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Landessternwarte Königstuhl, Institut de Ciències de l'Espai, Institut für Astrophysik Göttingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiología and Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars", the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Württemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucía. ; Peer reviewed

Context. Variability caused by stellar activity represents a challenge to the discovery and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets and complicates the interpretation of atmospheric planetary signals. Aims. We aim to use a detailed modeling tool to reproduce the effect of active regions on radial velocity measurements, which aids the identification of the key parameters that have an impact on the induced variability. Methods. We analyzed the effect of stellar activity on radial velocities as a function of wavelength by simulating the impact of the properties of spots, shifts induced by convective motions, and rotation. We focused our modeling effort on the active star YZ CMi (GJ 285), which was photometrically and spectroscopically monitored with CARMENES and the Telescopi Joan Oró. Results. We demonstrate that radial velocity curves at different wavelengths yield determinations of key properties of active regions, including spot-filling factor, temperature contrast, and location, thus solving the degeneracy between them. Most notably, our model is also sensitive to convective motions. Results indicate a reduced convective shift for M dwarfs when compared to solar-Type stars (in agreement with theoretical extrapolations) and points to a small global convective redshift instead of blueshift. Conclusions. Using a novel approach based on simultaneous chromatic radial velocities and light curves, we can set strong constraints on stellar activity, including an elusive parameter such as the net convective motion effect. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

The He I infrared (IR) triplet at 10 830 Å is known as an activity indicator in solar-type stars and has become a primary diagnostic in exoplanetary transmission spectroscopy. He I IR lines are a tracer of the stellar extreme-ultraviolet irradiation from the transition region and corona. We study the variability of the He I triplet lines in a spectral time series of 319 M dwarf stars that was obtained with the CARMENES high-resolution optical and near-infrared spectrograph at Calar Alto. We detect He I IR line variability in 18% of our sample stars, all of which show Hα in emission. Therefore, we find detectable He I variability in 78% of the sub-sample of stars with Hα emission. Detectable variability is strongly concentrated in the latest spectral sub-types, where the He I lines during quiescence are typically weak. The fraction of stars with detectable He I variation remains lower than 10% for stars earlier than M3.0 V, while it exceeds 30% for the later spectral sub-types. Flares are accompanied by particularly pronounced line variations, including strongly broadened lines with red and blue asymmetries. However, we also find evidence for enhanced He I absorption, which is potentially associated with increased high-energy irradiation levels at flare onset. Generally, He I and Hα line variations tend to be correlated, with Hα being the most sensitive indicator in terms of pseudo-equivalent width variation. This makes the He I triplet a favourable target for planetary transmission spectroscopy. © 2020 ESO. ; B.F. acknowledges funding by the DFG under Schm 1032/69-1. CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Institut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars", the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. ; Peer reviewed

Due to their ubiquity and very long main-sequence lifetimes, abundance determinations in M dwarfs provide a powerful and alternative tool to GK dwarfs to study the formation and chemical enrichment history of our Galaxy. In this study, abundances of the neutron-capture elements Rb, Sr, and Zr are derived, for the first time, in a sample of nearby M dwarfs. We focus on stars in the metallicity range-0.5 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲ +0.3, an interval poorly explored for Rb abundances in previous analyses. To do this we use high-resolution, high-signal-to-noise-ratio, optical and near-infrared spectra of 57 M dwarfs observed with CARMENES. The resulting [Sr/Fe] and [Zr/Fe] ratios for most M dwarfs are almost constant at about the solar value, and are identical to those found in GK dwarfs of the same metallicity. However, for Rb we find systematic underabundances ([Rb/Fe] < 0.0) by a factor two on average. Furthermore, a tendency is found for Rb-but not for other heavy elements (Sr, Zr)-to increase with increasing metallicity such that [Rb/Fe] ≳ 0.0 is attained at metallicities higher than solar. These are surprising results, never seen for any other heavy element, and are difficult to understand within the formulation of the s-and r-processes, both contributing sources to the Galactic Rb abundance. We discuss the reliability of these findings for Rb in terms of non-LTE (local thermodynamic equilibrium) effects, stellar activity, or an anomalous Rb abundance in the Solar System, but no explanation is found. We then interpret the full observed [Rb/Fe] versus [Fe/H] trend within the framework of theoretical predictions from state-of-the-art chemical evolution models for heavy elements, but a simple interpretation is not found either. In particular, the possible secondary behaviour of the [Rb/Fe] ratio at super-solar metallicities would require a much larger production of Rb than currently predicted in AGB stars through the s-process without overproducing Sr and Zr. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

The high-resolution, dual channel, visible and near-infrared spectrograph CARMENES offers exciting opportunities for stellar and exoplanetary research on M dwarfs. In this work we address the challenge of reaching the highest radial velocity precision possible with a complex, actively cooled, cryogenic instrument, such as the near-infrared channel. We describe the performance of the instrument and the work flow used to derive precise Doppler measurements from the spectra. The capability of both CARMENES channels to detect small exoplanets is demonstrated with the example of the nearby M5.0 V star CD Cet (GJ 1057), around which we announce a super-Earth (4.0 ± 0.4 M· ) companion on a 2.29 d orbit. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the "María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence" accreditation (MDM-2017-0737)

We determined effective temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities for a sample of 343 M dwarfs observed with CARMENES, the double-channel, high-resolution spectrograph installed at the 3.5 m telescope at Calar Alto Observatory. We employed STEPARSYN, a Bayesian spectral synthesis implementation particularly designed to infer the stellar atmospheric parameters of late-type stars following a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. We made use of the BT-Settl model atmospheres and the radiative transfer code turbospectrum to compute a grid of synthetic spectra around 75 magnetically insensitive Fe I and Ti I lines plus the TiO γ and ∈ bands. To avoid any potential degeneracy in the parameter space, we imposed Bayesian priors on Teff and logg based on the comprehensive, multi-band photometric data available for the sample. We find that this methodology is suitable down to M7.0 V, where refractory metals such as Ti are expected to condense in the stellar photospheres. The derived Teff, logg, and [Fe/H] range from 3000 to 4200 K, 4.5 to 5.3 dex, and -0.7 to 0.2 dex, respectively. Although our Teff scale is in good agreement with the literature, we report large discrepancies in the [Fe/H] scales, which might arise from the different methodologies and sets of lines considered. However, our [Fe/H] is in agreement with the metallicity distribution of FGK-type stars in the solar neighbourhood and correlates well with the kinematic membership of the targets in the Galactic populations. Lastly, excellent agreement in Teff is found for M dwarfs with interferometric angular diameter measurements, as well as in the [Fe/H] between the components in the wide physical FGK+M and M+M systems included in our sample. © 2021 ESO. ; CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano en Andalucia at Calar Alto (CAHA). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Plank Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Plank-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciences de l'Espai, Institut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenberg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Andaluz), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars", the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of BadenWurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. The authors acknowledge financial support from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the research grants UID/FIS/04434/2019, UIDB/04434/2020 and UIDP/04434/2020, national funds PTDC/FIS-AST/28953/2017, by FEDER (Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional) through COMPETE2020 Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI-01-0145FEDER-028953), and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER/ERF) through fellowship FPU15/01476, and projects AYA2016-79425-C3-1/2/3-P, PID2019-109522GB-C5[1:4]/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, AYA2014-56359-P, BES-2017-080769, and RYC-2013-14875. The authors also acknowledge financial support from the Centre of Excellence "Severo Ochoa" and "Maria de Maeztu" awards to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (SEV-2015-0548), Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709), and Centro de Astrobiologia (MDM-2017-0737), and the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme. This work has made use of the VALD database, operated at Uppsala University, the Institute of Astronomy RAS in Moscow, and the University of Vienna, and of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium).Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. V.M.P. acknowledges financial support from NASA through grant NNX17AG24G. S.V.J. acknowledges the support of the DFG priority program SPP 1992 "Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets" (JE 701/5-1). E.M. would also like to warmly thank the staff at the Hamburger Sternwarte for their hospitality during his stay funded by project EST18/00162. Based on data from the CARMENES data archive at CAB (INTA-CSIC). ; Peer reviewed

Context. For years, the standard procedure to measure radial velocities (RVs) of spectral observations consisted in cross-correlating the spectra with a binary mask, that is, a simple stellar template that contains information on the position and strength of stellar absorption lines. The cross-correlation function (CCF) profiles also provide several indicators of stellar activity. Aims. We present a methodology to first build weighted binary masks and, second, to compute the CCF of spectral observations with these masks from which we derive radial velocities and activity indicators. These methods are implemented in a python code that is publicly available. Methods. To build the masks, we selected a large number of sharp absorption lines based on the profile of the minima present in high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) spectrum templates built from observations of reference stars. We computed the CCFs of observed spectra and derived RVs and the following three standard activity indicators: full-width-at-half-maximum as well as contrast and bisector inverse slope. Results. We applied our methodology to CARMENES high-resolution spectra and obtain RV and activity indicator time series of more than 300 M dwarf stars observed for the main CARMENES survey. Compared with the standard CARMENES template matching pipeline, in general we obtain more precise RVs in the cases where the template used in the standard pipeline did not have enough S/N. We also show the behaviour of the three activity indicators for the active star YZ CMi and estimate the absolute RV of the M dwarfs analysed using the CCF RVs. © ESO 2020. ; CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Institut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars", the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. Based on data from the CARMENES data archive at CAB (INTA-CSIC).