The Belgian repository of fundamental atomic data and stellar spectra

Abstract

BRASS is an international networking project of the Federal Government of Belgium for the development of a new public database providing accurate fundamental atomic data of vital importance for stellar spectroscopic research. The BRASS database will offer atomic line data that is thoroughly tested by comparing theoretical and observed stellar spectra. We are in the course of performing extensive quality assessments of selected atomic input data with advanced radiative transfer spectrum synthesis calculations that we compare in detail to high-resolution Mercator-HERMES and ESO-VLT-UVES spectra of very high signal-to-noise ratios for about 30 hot and cool bright stars of B, A, F, G, and K spectral types. The new database will provide the tested and validated values of absorption lines we retrieve from various existing atomic repositories, such as NIST and VAMDC. The validated atomic datasets, combined with the observed and theoretical spectra, will be interactively offered online at brass.sdf.org. The combination of these datasets is a novel approach for its development, which will provide a universal reference for advanced stellar spectroscopic research. We present the atmospheric parameter results of a subset of five benchmark stars observed with signal-to-noise ratios of 800–1200. The observed and theoretical spectra of the Sun and 51 Peg between 4000 and 6800 Å are offered online in the BRASS Data Interface. It also incorporates a new list of ∼900 metal lines for which we compute blending below 5% of the equivalent width useful for detailed line profile modeling and synthetic spectrum fit quality assessments of atomic line data.