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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2016
The fine structure of stellar photospheric convection (the stellar equivalent of solar granulation) can be analyzed with the aid of high-resolution spectroscopy. Photospheric absorption lines are slightly asymmetric and wavelength–shifted due to unequal photon contributions from bright and systematically Doppler–shifted granules and from darker intergranular areas. Numerical simulations of stellar surface convection in different stars have now been carried out, and such three–dimensional and time–dependent models predict the detailed stellar line profiles (including asymmetries and wavelength shifts), thus enabling a direct confrontation between observations and theory.