An updated catalog of HIRES/Keck radial velocity measurements

Including Ca II H&K measurements

¹ Department of Physics, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel
² Universität Heidelberg, Landessternwarte, Zentrum für Astronomie, Königstuhl 12, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
³ Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Herzl St 234, Rehovot, Israel
⁴ Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA
⁵ Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Physics, Sofia University “St Kliment Ohridski”, 5 James Bourchier Blvd, 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria
⁶ UCO/Lick Observatory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
⁷ Astrophysics, Geophysics and Space Science Research Center, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel

^★ Corresponding author: jerusalemt@msmail.ariel.ac.il

Received: 4 April 2025
Accepted: 13 August 2025

Abstract

Context. The first HIRES/Keck precision radial velocity (RV) catalog was released in 2017; it was followed by a second release in 2019, which incorporated corrections for small but significant systematic errors. The manifestation of stellar activity accompanied by systematic errors could affect the detection of exoplanets via the RV method.

Aims. We expanded the HIRES catalog to March 2023 using publicly available spectra. Furthermore, we included the chromospheric emission line Ca II H&K indicator (R′_HK), which is among the most prominent tracers of stellar activity.

Methods. The precision RVs were obtained using an iodine gas absorption cell and corrected for minor systematic errors. R′_HK measurements were derived by rectifying the observed spectra with PHOENIX synthetic spectra models in six narrow bands surrounding the H and K lines, then subtracting the photospheric contribution.

Results. We present an updated HIRES/Keck precision RV catalog featuring 78 920 RV measurements for 1702 stars. High-quality R′_HK measurements are provided for ~40% of the HIRES catalog.

Conclusions. The updated catalog can help distinguish stellar activity effects from planetary signals in RV time series, thereby corroborating previously detected planetary candidates and aiding in the detection of new ones.