Bolometric Corrections and Synthetic Stellar Photometry

bcutil.py contains python functions to interpolate bolometric corrections for Gaia DR2, DR3 and 2MASS at desired input stellar parameters (effective temperature, gravity and metallicity) and reddening (with the possibility of changing R_V in the adopted extinction law). To use bcutil.py please download and unpack grid.tar.gz in the same directory.

BCcodes, BCtables and BCtables2 are not needed to run bcutil.py. They contain codes and tables to compute bolometric corrections in many more photometric systems using a different set of programs. Also in this case, bolometric corrections can be computed at desired input stellar parameters and reddening (but without the possibility of varying R_V).

• BCcodes.tar.gz contains FORTRAN programs and shell scripts to be used with the tables below.

• BCtables.tar.gz contains tables for the systems described in Casagrande & VandenBerg (2014): Johnson-Cousins, SDSS, HST, 2MASS.

• BCtables2.tar.gz contains tables for the systems described in Casagrande & VandenBerg (2018a, 2018b): JWST, PanSTARRS1, SkyMapper, Tycho, Hipparcos and Gaia DR2.

The content of the unpacked BC*.tar files must be in the same directory (i.e., the directories within BCtables and/or BCtables2 must be where files from BCcodes are located). For instructions and examples how to use the programs provided, please read INSTRUCTIONS.txt located in BCcodes.tar.gz.

Synthetic colours and reddening coefficients can be derived from bolometric corrections as described in Appendix A of Casagrande & VandenBerg (2014). Comparison of synthetic photometry with observations indicates that performances are overall good across optical and infrared bands (but please, refer to Section 4 of Casagrande & VandenBerg 2014 and 2018a for a discussion of successes and limitations).

Please cite Casagrande & VandenBerg (2014) and/or Casagrande & VandenBerg (2018a, 2018b) if you find these packages useful for your research.

If you are looking for empirical colour-effective temperature relations in the Gaia DR2 and DR3 systems, please check here.

Difference in bolometric corrections derived using Gaia DR2 vs DR3 passbands and zero-points.