Towards an Increased Accuracy of Fundamental Properties of Stars: Proposing a Set of Nominal Astrophysical Parameters and Constants

With the precision of space-borne photometers better than 100 ppm (i.e. MOST, CoRoT and Kepler), the derived stellar properties often suffer from systematic offsets due to the values used for solar mass, radius and luminosity, and to fundamental astrophysical constants. Stellar parameters are often expressed in terms of L_⊙, M_⊙ and R_⊙, but the actual values used vary from study to study. Here, we propose to adopt a nominal set of fundamental solar parameters that will impose consistency across published works and eliminate systematics that stem from inconsistent values. We further implore the community to rigorously use the official values of fundamental astrophysical constants set forth by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA).