The carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are largely unidentified molecules ubiquitously present in the interstellar medium (ISM). After decades of study, two strong and possibly three weak near-infrared DIBs have recently been attributed to the C fullerene based on observational and laboratory measurements. There is great promise for the identification of the over 400 other known DIBs, as this result could provide chemical hints towards other possible carriers. In an effort tosystematically study the properties of the DIB carriers, we have initiated a new large-scale observational survey: the ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey (EDIBLES). The main objective is to build on and extend existing DIB surveys to make a major step forward in characterising the physical and chemical conditions for a statistically significant sample of interstellar lines-of-sight, with the goal to reverse-engineer key molecular properties of the DIB carriers. EDIBLES is a filler Large Programme using the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile. It is designed to provide an observationally unbiased view of the presence and behaviour of the DIBs towards early-spectral-type stars whose lines-of-sight probe the diffuse-to-translucent ISM. Such a complete dataset will provide a deep census of the atomic and molecular content, physical conditions, chemical abundances and elemental depletion levels for each sightline. Achieving these goals requires a homogeneous set of high-quality data in terms of resolution (R ~ 70 000–100 000), sensitivity (S/N up to 1000 per resolution element), and spectral coverage (305–1042 nm), as well as a large sample size (100+ sightlines). In this first paper the goals, objectives and methodology of the EDIBLES programme are described and an initial assessment of the data is provided.

Context. Hundreds of candidate hybrid pulsators of intermediate type A-F were revealed by recent space missions. Hybrid pulsators allow us to study the full stellar interiors, where both low-order p- and high-order g-modes are simultaneously excited. The true hybrid stars must be identified since other processes, related to stellar multiplicity or rotation, might explain the presence of (some) low frequencies observed in their periodograms. Aims. We measured the radial velocities of 50 candidate delta Scuti - gamma Doradus hybrid stars from the Kepler mission with the Hermes and ACE spectrographs over a time span of months to years. We aim to derive the fraction of binary and multiple systems and to provide an independent and homogeneous determination of the atmospheric properties and v sin i for all targets. The long(er)-term objective is to identify the (probable) physical cause of the low frequencies. Methods. We computed one-dimensional cross-correlation functions (CCFs) in order to find the best set of parameters in terms of the number of components, spectral type(s), and v sin i for each target. Radial velocities were measured using spectrum synthesis and a two-dimensional cross-correlation technique in the case of double-and triple-lined systems. Fundamental parameters were determined by fitting (composite) synthetic spectra to the normalised median spectra corrected for the appropriate Doppler shifts. Results. We report on the analysis of 478 high-resolution Hermes and 41 ACE spectra of A/F-type candidate hybrid pulsators from the Kepler field. We determined their radial velocities, projected rotational velocities, and atmospheric properties and classified our targets based on the shape of the CCFs and the temporal behaviour of the radial velocities. We derived orbital solutions for seven new systems. Three preliminary long-period orbital solutions are confirmed by a photometric time-delay analysis. Finally, we determined a global multiplicity fraction of 27% in our sample of candidate hybrid stars.

Context. Fundamental atomic parameters, such as oscillator strengths, play a key role in modelling and understanding the chemical composition of stars in the Universe. Despite the significant work underway to produce these parameters for many astrophysically important ions, uncertainties in these parameters remain large and can propagate throughout the entire field of astronomy.Aims. The Belgian repository of fundamental atomic data and stellar spectra (BRASS) aims to provide the largest systematic and homogeneous quality assessment of atomic data to date in terms of wavelength, atomic and stellar parameter coverage. To prepare for it, we first compiled multiple literature occurrences of many individual atomic transitions, from several atomic databases of astrophysical interest, and assessed their agreement. In a second step synthetic spectra will be compared against extremely high-quality observed spectra, for a large number of BAFGK spectral type stars, in order to critically evaluate the atomic data of a large number of important stellar lines.Methods. Several atomic repositories were searched and their data retrieved and formatted in a consistent manner. Data entries from all repositories were cross-matched against our initial BRASS atomic line list to find multiple occurrences of the same transition. Where possible we used a new non-parametric cross-match depending only on electronic configurations and total angular momentum values. We also checked for duplicate entries of the same physical transition, within each retrieved repository, using the non-parametric cross-match.Results. We report on the number of cross-matched transitions for each repository and compare their fundamental atomic parameters. We find differences in log(gf) values of up to 2 dex or more. We also find and report that ~2% of our line list and Vienna atomic line database retrievals are composed of duplicate transitions. Finally we provide a number of examples of atomic spectral lines with different retrieved literature log(gf) values, and discuss the impact of these uncertain log(gf) values on quantitative spectroscopy.

We report on the discovery of a planetary companion candidate with a minimum mass M sin i = 4.6 ± 1.0 M_Jupiter orbiting the K2 III giant star HD 175370 (KIC 007940959). This star was a target in our programme to search for planets around a sample of 95 giant stars observed with Kepler. This detection was made possible using precise stellar radial velocity measurements of HD 175370 taken over five years and four months using the coudé echelle spectrograph of the 2-m Alfred Jensch Telescope and the fibre-fed echelle spectrograph High Efficiency and Resolution Mercator Echelle Spectrograph of the 1.2-m Mercator Telescope. Our radial velocity measurements reveal a periodic (349.5 ± 4.5 d) variation with a semi-amplitude K = 133 ± 25 m s^{− 1}, superimposed on a long-term trend. A low-mass stellar companion with an orbital period of ∼88 yr in a highly eccentric orbit and a planet in a Keplerian orbit with an eccentricity e = 0.22 are the most plausible explanation of the radial velocity variations. However, we cannot exclude the existence of stellar envelope pulsations as a cause for the low-amplitude radial velocity variations and only future continued monitoring of this system may answer this uncertainty. From Kepler photometry, we find that HD 175370 is most likely a low-mass red giant branch or asymptotic giant branch star.

Context. Fundamental atomic transition parameters, such as oscillator strengths and rest wavelengths, play a key role in modelling and understanding the chemical composition of stars in the universe. Despite the significant work under way to produce these parameters for many astrophysically important ions, uncertainties in these parameters remain large and can limit the accuracy of chemical abundance determinations.Aims. The Belgian repository of fundamental atomic data and stellar spectra (BRASS) aims to provide a large systematic and homogeneous quality assessment of the atomic data available for quantitative spectroscopy. BRASS shall compare synthetic spectra against extremely high-quality observed spectra, at a resolution of ∼85 000 and signal-noise ratios of ∼1000, for approximately 20 bright BAFGK spectral-type stars, in order to critically evaluate the atomic data available for over a thousand potentially useful spectral lines.Methods. A large-scale homogeneous selection of atomic lines is performed by synthesising theoretical spectra of literature atomic lines for FGK-type stars including the Sun, resulting in a selection of 1091 theoretically deep and unblended lines in the wavelength range 4200–6800 Å, which may be suitable for quality assessment. Astrophysical log(g f) values are determined for the 1091 transitions using two commonly employed methods. The agreement of these log(g f) values are used to select well-behaved lines for quality assessment.Results. We found 845 atomic lines to be suitable for quality assessment, of which 408 were found to be robust against systematic differences between analysis methods. Around 53% of the quality-assessed lines were found to have at least one literature log(g f) value in agreement with our derived values, though the remaining values can disagree by as much as 0.5 dex. Only ∼38% of Fe Ilines were found to have sufficiently accurate log(g f) values, increasing to ∼70–75% for the remaining Fe-group lines.

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.