Listing the Radial and Rotational Velocities Available for a Given Star

Several different determinations of stellar radial and projected rotational velocities are tabulated in the GES archive. This page briefly describes where each may be found and prescribes the circumstances in which each may be used (in conformance with the Consortium publication policy).

In brief, the radial velocities that must be used in GES publications are located in column 'Vrad' of view 'RecommendedAstroAnalysis'. In special cases column 'rv' of Table 'Spectrum' can be used but permission must be obtained directly from the PIs.

The following table summarises the location of radial and rotational velocities and their respective errors in view 'RecommendedAstroAnalysis' and table 'Spectrum':

Quantity	RecommendedAstroAnalysis	Spectrum
Radial velocity	Vrad	rv
Radial velocity error	VradErr	rvErr
Radial velocity provenance	provVRad	-
Rotational velocity	vsini (empty)	vRot
Rotational velocity error	vsiniErr (empty)	vRotErr

All values are in km/sec. The radial velocities are heliocentric and have the usual convention that positive values correspond to recession. The following values are valid in Column 'provVRad':

'provVRad' value	Description
ARCETRI	Pipeline processing of UVES spectra in Arcetri
CASU	Pipeline processing of Giraffe spectra in Cambridge
NONE	No radial velocity available
WG13	Processing by WG13 using combined grating wavelengths

Recall that usually you will use column 'Vrad' from view 'RecommendedAstroAnalysis' and these values are tabulated one per star (that is, per 'cName'). To list the radial velocity available in 'RecommendedAstroAnalysis' for a given star is straightforward:

SELECT
  racc.cName, racc.Vrad, racc.VradErr, racc.provVRad,
  racc.instrument, racc.gratings
FROM
  RecommendedAstroAnalysis racc
WHERE racc.cName ='11053303-7700120';
      

'RecommendedAstroAnalysis' columns 'instrument' and 'gratings' tabulate the instrument and grating setup used to acquire the spectra. Conversely, to list any values tabulated for the same star in table 'Spectrum':

SELECT
  sp.cName, sp.rv, sp.rvErr, sp.vRot, sp.vRotErr,
  frame.instrument, frame.grating
FROM
  Spectrum sp,
  SpecFrame frame
WHERE sp.specFrameID = frame.specFrameID
  AND sp.cName = '11053303-7700120';
      

Here table 'Spectrum' is being joined with table 'SpecFrame' so that 'SpecFrame' columns 'instrument' and 'grating' can be used to show the instruments used to acquire the spectra; different techniques were used to derive the velocities in 'Spectrum' depending on the instrument with which they were acquired (see above). Please recall that you must obtain explicit permission from the PIs to use the radial velocities in 'Spectrum'. The two queries can, of course, be combined to see both sets of velocities available for a given star:

SELECT
  racc.cName, racc.Vrad, racc.VradErr, provVRad,
  sp.rv, sp.rvErr, sp.vRot, sp.vRotErr,
  racc.instrument, racc.gratings
FROM
  RecommendedAstroAnalysis racc,
  SpectrumGroup spg,
  Spectrum sp
WHERE racc.specGroupId = spg.specGroupId
  AND spg.specId = sp.specId
  AND racc.cName ='11053303-7700120';
      

Finally, views 'WGRecommendedAstroAnalysis', 'WpNaAstroAnalysis' and 'NpNaAstroAnalysis' can be queried in a similar way to view 'RecommendedAstroAnalysis' to see any node velocity determinations for a star, for example:

SELECT
  npna.cName, npna.Vrad, npna.VradErr, npna.provVRad, npna.vsini, npna.vsiniErr,
  npna.instrument, npna.gratings, npna.wg, npna.nodeName
FROM
  NpNaAstroAnalysis npna
WHERE npna.cName ='11053303-7700120'
ORDER BY npna.wg, npna.nodeName;
      

Here both radial and projected rotational velocities might be available. Also the working group and node name are included in the listing to indicate the provenance of the values. Column 'provVRad' only has any meaning for view 'RecommendedAstroAnalysis' and so for the three views 'WGRecommendedAstroAnalysis', 'WpNaAstroAnalysis' and 'NpNaAstroAnalysis' it should always have the value 'NONE'. This example is included for completeness, but please recall that in conformance with Consortium policy these velocities should not be used in any publication.