S. Becerril, S. Reinhart, I. M. Ferro, Philipp Huke, E. Díez-Alonso, R. González-Peinado, M. Azzaro, Richard J. Mathar, Jose Antonio Pascual, A. Lamert, Javier López-Santiago, E. Mirabet, M. A. Sánchez Carrasco, Gilles Bergond, Ulrich Mall, D. Pérez Medialdea, Armin Huber, E. Herrero, E. Casal, S. V. Jeffers, Grzegorz Nowak, Sebastian Schafer, J. Helmling, S. Sadegi, H. Magán Madinabeitia, G. Veredas, M. Lampón, E. N. Johnson, W. Xu, Karl Wagner, M. L. García Vargas, David Barrado, J. H. M. M. Schmitt, Enric Palle, R. Oreiro, D. Baroch, B. Arroyo-Torres, Pedro J. Amado, C. Cifuentes, J. A. Marín Molina, D. Galadí-Enríquez, Stefan Dreizler, Cristina Rodríguez-López, Víctor J. S. Béjar, A. Rodríguez Trinidad, M. Lafarga, I. Hermelo, V. M. Passegger, H. W. Rix, H. Anwand-Heerwart, Juan Carlos Suárez, Florian Rodler, Martin Kürster, M. Kim, P. Schöfer, J. Klüter, M. Tala, R.-R. Rohloff, D. Benítez, Johana Panduro, Lisa Nortmann, Andreas Quirrenbach, Z. M. Berdiñas, J. Schiller, J. López-González, S. Czesla, P. Rhode, Adrian Kaminski, A. Pavlov, Holger Mandel, L. Hernández Castaño, J. I. Vico Linares, C. Feiz, Guillem Anglada-Escudé, L. F. Sarmiento, Susana Martín-Ruiz, Simon Tulloch, A. P. Hatzes, Jesús Aceituno, Eike W. Guenther, M. Pluto, Juan Carlos Morales, Manuel López-Puertas, M. Ammler-von Eiff, M. R. Zapatero Osorio, R. G. Ulbrich, Otmar Stahl, M. López del Fresno, Emilio Marfil, Reinhard Mundt, Lluis Gesa, Evangelos Nagel, Werner Laun, Josep Colomé, Francesc Vilardell, M. C. Cárdenas Vázquez, J. F. López Salas, Jose A. Caballero, M. Blümcke, A. Ramón, Aviv Ofir, E. de Guindos, Ana Pérez-Calpena, S. Pedraz, Ralf Launhardt, Rainer Lenzen, A. Claret, Sabine Reffert, U. Lemke, Luigi Mancini, J. B. P. Strachan, F. J. Alonso-Floriano, M. A. C. Perryman, Fei Yan, Mathias Zechmeister, Ernesto Sánchez-Blanco, Vianak Naranjo, A. Klutsch, Lev Tal-Or, M. Fernandez, J. Guàrdia, F. Hernández Hernando, Ulrich Grözinger, Walter Seifert, V. Gómez Galera, Luisa Lara, R. P. Hedrosa, Rafael Rebolo, A. Guijarro, E. de Juan, A. Sánchez-López, Rafael Luque, M. Brinkmöller, Paula Sarkis, J. Stürmer, Ovidio Rabaza, J. I. González Hernández, C. del Burgo, A. Rosich, Andreas Schweitzer, D. Montes, Miguel Abril, M. E. Moreno-Raya, H. J. Hagen, S. Grohnert, Birgit Fuhrmeister, P. Redondo, F. F. Bauer, E. Rodriguez, Ralf Klein, R. Antona, A. Garcia-Piquer, J. Cano, Trifon Trifonov, A. Moya, Ansgar Reiners, Jorge Sanz-Forcada, Peter H. Hauschildt, E. Solano, J. Winkler, Manuel Perger, R. Hernández Arabí, Ignasi Ribas, C. J. Marvin, Th. Henning, V. Wolthoff, D. Maroto Fernández, Juan Gutiérrez-Soto, M. Cortés-Contreras, Eduardo L. Martín, Hugo M. Tabernero, Max Planck Society, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), European Commission, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministry of Science, Research and Art Baden-Württemberg, German Research Foundation, Junta de Andalucía, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (Chile), German Centre for Air and Space Travel, European Research Council, Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Física, Ingeniería de Sistemas y Teoría de la Señal, and Astrofísica Estelar (AE)
The CARMENES radial velocity (RV) survey is observing 324 M dwarfs to search for any orbiting planets. In this paper, we present the survey sample by publishing one CARMENES spectrum for each M dwarf. These spectra cover the wavelength range 520¿1710 nm at a resolution of at least R >80 000, and we measure its RV, H¿ emission, and projected rotation velocity. We present an atlas of high-resolution M-dwarf spectra and compare the spectra to atmospheric models. To quantify the RV precision that can be achieved in low-mass stars over the CARMENES wavelength range, we analyze our empirical information on the RV precision from more than 6500 observations. We compare our high-resolution M-dwarf spectra to atmospheric models where we determine the spectroscopic RV information content, Q, and signal-to-noise ratio. We find that for all M-type dwarfs, the highest RV precision can be reached in the wavelength range 700¿900 nm. Observations at longer wavelengths are equally precise only at the very latest spectral types (M8 and M9). We demonstrate that in this spectroscopic range, the large amount of absorption features compensates for the intrinsic faintness of an M7 star. To reach an RV precision of 1 m s¿1 in very low mass M dwarfs at longer wavelengths likely requires the use of a 10 m class telescope. For spectral types M6 and earlier, the combination of a red visual and a near-infrared spectrograph is ideal to search for low-mass planets and to distinguish between planets and stellar variability. At a 4 m class telescope, an instrument like CARMENES has the potential to push the RV precision well below the typical jitter level of 3-4 m s-1. © ESO 2018., We thank an anonymous referee for prompt attention and helpful comments that helped to improve the quality of this paper. CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and DFG Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars>, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. This work has made use of the VALD database, operated at Uppsala University, the Institute of Astronomy RAS in Moscow, and the University of Vienna. We acknowledge the following funding programs: European Research Council (ERC-279347), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (RE 1664/12-1, RE 2694/4-1), Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF-05A14MG3, BMBF-05A17MG3), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO, grants AYA2015-68012-C2-2-P, AYA2016-79425-C3-1,2,3-P, AYA2015-69350-C3-2-P, AYA2014-54348-C03-01, AYA2014-56359-P, AYA2014-54348-C3-2R, AYA2016-79425-C3-3-P and 2013 Ramon y Cajal program RYC-2013-14875), Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER, grant ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, ESP2015-65712-C5-5-R), Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme, Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte, programa de Formacion de Profesorado Universitario (grant FPU15/01476), Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (grants 50OW0204 and 50OO1501), Office of Naval Research Global (award no. N62909-15-1-2011), Mexican CONACyT grant CB-2012-183007.