1995A&A...294..165M

We study the behaviour of the excess Hα emission in a sample of 51 chromospherically active binary systems (RS CVn and BY Dra classes), of different activity levels. This sample include the 27 stars analysed by Fernandez-Figueroa et al. (1994ApJS...90..433F) and the new observations of 24 systems described by Montes et al. (1995A&AS..109..135M). By using the spectral subtraction technique (subtraction of a synthesized stellar spectrum constructed from reference stars of similar spectral type and luminosity class) we obtain the active-chromosphere contribution to the Hα line in these 51 systems. We have determined the excess Hα emission equivalent widths and converted it to surface fluxes. The Hα emissions arising from each component star were obtained when it was possible to deblend both contributions. The comparison of the excess Hα emission, obtained with the spectral subtraction technique, with other Hα activity indices allows us to conclude that this is the preferable activity indicator for binaries. The behaviour of the excess Hα emission as a function of the rotation has been analyzed. A slight decline toward longer rotational periods, P_rot, and larger Rossby numbers, R₀, is present in agreement with previous results using others activity indicators. We have compared the derived excess Hα emission fluxes with those obtained in the Ca II K and Hε lines finding that a good correlation exits between these three chromospheric activity indicators. The Hα losses seem to be more important than Ca II K losses for cooler stars, in fact all the system with Hα emission above the continuum are cooler than 5000K. Correlations with other activity indicators, (C IV in the transition region, and X-rays in the corona) indicate that the exponents of the power-law relations increase with the formation temperature of the spectral features.