Calibration of Stromgren phot. for late-type stars

The theoretical metallicity sensitivity of the m1 index (and for G-type stars its combination with c1) is somewhat higher than the empirical one, based upon spectroscopic determinations. The gravity sensitivity of the synthetic c1 index shows satisfactory behaviour when compared to observations of F stars. For stars cooler than the sun, a deviation is significant in the c1-(b-y) diagram.

The theoretical calibrations of (b-y), (v-y), and c1 seem to work well for Pop II stars and lead to effective temperatures for globular cluster stars supporting recent claims that atomic diffusion occurs in stars near the turnoff point of NGC 6397. Synthetic colours of stellar atmospheres can indeed be used, in many cases, to derive reliable fundamental stellar parameters. The deviations seen when compared to observational data could be due to incomplete linelists but are possibly also due to the effects of assuming plane-parallel or spherical geometry and LTE.