Wednesday, 18 June, 1997 at 3:30pm

Serena Viti - University College London

"A spectral analysis for M dwarfs"

ABSTRACT: "Low mass stars are the most numerous in our Galaxy. Because of the complexity of their spectra, which are dominated by water in the infrared and TiO in the optical, standard techniques like blackbody curve fits, used for hotter stars to find their essential parameters (e.g. effective temperatures), are not applicable. The measurement of their fundamental parameters thus rely entirely on a direct empirical comparison among stars of similar spectral classes and on a careful fit to synthetic spectra. We present results of a detailed spectral analysis for some M dwarfs among which the eclipsing binary system CM Draconis."