Constraining atmospheric parameters and surface magnetic fields with ZeeTurbo: an application to SPIRou spectra

We report first results on a method aimed at simultaneously characterizing atmospheric parameters and magnetic properties of M dwarfs from high-resolution near-IR spectra recorded with SPIRou in the framework of the SPIRou Le gac y Surv e y (SLS). Our analysis relies on fitting synthetic spectra computed from MARCS model atmospheres to selected spectral lines, both sensitive and insensitive to magnetic fields. We introduce a new code, ZeeTurbo, obtained by including the Zeeman effect and polarized radiative transfer capabilities to Turbospectrum. We compute a grid of synthetic spectra with ZeeTurbo for different magnetic field strengths and develop a process to simultaneously constrain T-eff,T- log g , [M / H] , [ a/ Fe] , and the average surface magnetic flux. In this paper, we present our approach and assess its performance using simulations, before applying it to six targets observed in the context of the SLS, namely AU Mic, EV Lac, AD Leo, CN Leo, PM J18482 + 0741, and DS Leo. Our method allows us to retrieve atmospheric parameters in good agreement with the literature, and simultaneously yields surface magnetic fluxes in the range 2-4 kG with a typical precision of 0.05 kG, in agreement with literature estimates, and consistent with the saturated dynamo regime in which most of these stars are.

Automated summary

We present a new method for characterizing atmospheric parameters and magnetic properties of M dwarfs using high-resolution near-IR spectra recorded with SPIRou. Our analysis relies on fitting synthetic spectra computed from MARCS model atmospheres to selected spectral lines sensitive and insensitive to magnetic fields. We introduce a new code, ZeeTurbo, which includes the Zeeman effect and polarized radiative transfer capabilities.