Hamilton and Lester demonstrate a new technique to measure stellar convection

Convective motions in stellar atmospheres produce spectral absorption line asymmetries that are traditionally studied using line bisectors, a technique requiring both high spectral resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio. Hamilton and Lester's technique involves measuring precise relative radial velocities in order to determine line core shifts for a large sample of weak through strong lines. Their key result is that this method can be applied at significantly lower spectral resolutions and signal-to-noise ratios than has been done using bisectors.

132 kB gzip'd postscript REPRINT (Hamilton & Lester, 1999, PASP 111, 1132)