Synthetic spectra of H Balmer and HeI absorption lines. I. Stellar library

We present a grid of synthetic profiles of stellar H Balmer and He I lines at optical wavelengths with a sampling of 0.3 Angstrom. The grid spans a range of effective temperature 50,000 K greater than or equal to T-eff greater than or equal to 4000 K, and gravity 0.0 less than or equal to log g less than or equal to 5.0 at solar metallicity. For T-eff greater than or equal to 25,000 K, non-LTE stellar atmosphere models are computed using the code TLUSTY (Hubeny). For cooler stars, Kurucz LTE models are used to compute the synthetic spectra. The grid includes the profiles of the high-order hydrogen Balmer series and He I lines for effective temperatures and gravities that have not been previously synthesized. The behavior of H8 to H13 and He I lambda 3819 with effective temperature and gravity is very similar to that of the lower terms of the series (e.g., H beta) and the other He I lines at longer wavelengths; therefore, they are suited for the determination of the atmospheric parameters of stars. These lines are potentially important to make predictions for these stellar absorption features in galaxies with active star formation. Evolutionary synthesis models of these lines for starburst and poststarburst galaxies are presented in a companion paper. The full set of the synthetic stellar spectra is available for retrieval at our website or on request from the authors.