1998A&A...338..661O

With a sophisticated analysis we determine the photospheric metal abundances of active stars to investigate the abundance stratification in active stellar atmospheres. For selected single stars and RS CVn binaries we have taken high-resolution, high-SN and partially phase-resolved spectra of the entire visible range. With a purely spectroscopic, self-consistent method based on line profile synthesis and an equivalent width analysis, we derive the effective temperature T_eff, surface gravity logg, microturbulence ξ_t and the abundances of Fe, Mg and Si with high internal accuracy (ΔT_eff≃70K, Δlogg≃0.1dex, Δξ_t≃0.1km/s, Δ[Fe/H], Δ[Mg/H], Δ[Si/H]≃0.05dex). Stellar parameters and metal abundances are obtained for the single stars β Cet, κ Cet and π¹ UMa as well as for the RS CVn binaries AY Cet, VY Ari, EI Eri, IM Peg, λ And and II Peg. The effect of stellar activity features (spots and plages) on the derived parameters is investigated by phase-resolved spectroscopy; we find that one out of four systems shows a significant variation of the Mg and Si abundances with rotational phase. The results help solving the puzzle about the photospheric Fe abundances of RS CVn binaries; specifically, we obtain [Fe/H]≥-0.4 for all systems, indicating that they definitely are not metal-poor. In II Peg and λ And, the metals are strongly depleted in the corona relative to the photosphere; in β Cet and π¹ UMa, Fe and Si are weakly depleted, but Mg is enhanced (with 1σ significance). The abundance stratifications are discussed in terms of the FIP-effect and the hydrostatic equilibrium stratification.