No Arabic abstract
The size of convective cores remains uncertain, despite its substantial influence on stellar evolution, and thus on stellar ages. The seismic modeling of young subgiants can be used to obtain indirect constraints on the core structure during main sequence, thanks to the high probing potential of mixed modes. We selected the young subgiant KIC10273246, observed by Kepler, based on its mixed-mode properties. We thoroughly modeled this star, with the aim of placing constraints on the size of its main sequence convective core. We first extracted the parameters of the oscillation modes of the star using the full Kepler data set. To overcome the challenges posed by the seismic modeling of subgiants, we proposed a method which is specifically tailored for subgiants with mixed modes and consists in a nested optimization. We then applied this method to perform a detailed seismic modeling of KIC10273246. We obtained models that show good statistical agreements with the observations, both seismic and non-seismic. We showed that including core overshooting in the models significantly improves the quality of the seismic fit, optimal models being found for $alpha_{mathrm{ov}} = 0.15$. Higher amounts of core overshooting strongly worsen the agreement with the observations and are thus firmly ruled out. We also found that having access to two g-dominated mixed modes in young subgiants allows us to place stronger constraints on the gradient of molecular weight in the core and on the central density. This study confirms the high potential of young subgiants with mixed modes to investigate the size of main-sequence convective cores. It paves the way for a more general study including the subgiants observed with Kepler, TESS, and eventually PLATO.
Since few decades, asteroseismology, the study of stellar oscillations, enables us to probe the interiors of stars with great precision. It allows stringent tests of stellar models and can provide accurate radii, masses and ages for individual stars. Of particular interest are the mixed modes that occur in subgiant solar-like stars since they can place very strong constraints on stellar ages. Here we measure the characteristics of the mixed modes, particularly the coupling strength, using a grid of stellar models for stars with masses between 0.9 and 1.5 M_{odot}. We show that the coupling strength of the $ell = 1$ mixed modes is predominantly a function of stellar mass and appears to be independent of metallicity. This should allow an accurate mass evaluation, further increasing the usefulness of mixed modes in subgiants as asteroseismic tools.
A set of long and nearly continuous observations of alpha Centauri A should allow us to derive an accurate set of asteroseismic constraints to compare to models, and make inferences on the internal structure of our closest stellar neighbour. We intend to improve the knowledge of the interior of alpha Centauri A by determining the nature of its core. We combined the radial velocity time series obtained in May 2001 with three spectrographs in Chile and Australia: CORALIE, UVES, and UCLES. The resulting combined time series has a length of 12.45 days and contains over 10,000 data points and allows to greatly reduce the daily alias peaks in the power spectral window. We detected 44 frequencies that are in good overall agreement with previous studies, and found that 14 of these show possible rotational splittings. New values for the large and small separations have been derived. A comparison with stellar models indicates that the asteroseismic constraints determined in this study allows us to set an upper limit to the amount of convective-core overshooting needed to model stars of mass and metallicity similar to those of alpha Cen A.
Our knowledge of the dynamics of stars has undergone a revolution thanks to the simultaneous large amount of high-quality photometric observations collected by space-based asteroseismology and ground-based high-precision spectropolarimetry. They allowed us to probe the internal rotation of stars and their surface magnetism in the whole Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. However, new methods should still be developed to probe the deep magnetic fields in those stars. Our goal is to provide seismic diagnoses that allow us to sound the internal magnetism of stars. Here, we focus on asymptotic low-frequency gravity modes and high-frequency acoustic modes. Using a first-order perturbative theory, we derive magnetic splittings of their frequencies as explicit functions of stellar parameters. As in the case of rotation, we show how asymptotic gravity and acoustic modes can allow us to probe the different components of the magnetic field in the cavities where they propagate. This demonstrates again the high potential of using mixed-modes when this is possible.
Convective core overshooting extends the main-sequence lifetime of a star. Evolutionary tracks computed with overshooting are quite different from those that use the classical Schwarzschild criterion, which leads to rather different predictions for the stellar properties. Attempts over the last two decades to calibrate the degree of overshooting with stellar mass using detached double-lined eclipsing binaries have been largely inconclusive, mainly due to a lack of suitable observational data. Here we revisit the question of a possible mass dependence of overshooting with a more complete sample of binaries, and examine any additional relation there might be with evolutionary state or metal abundance Z. We use a carefully selected sample of 33 double-lined eclipsing binaries strategically positioned in the H-R diagram, with accurate absolute dimensions and component masses ranging from 1.2 to 4.4 solar masses. We compare their measured properties with stellar evolution calculations to infer semi-empirical values of the overshooting parameter alpha(ov) for each star. Our models use the common prescription for the overshoot distance d(ov) = alpha(ov) Hp, where Hp is the pressure scale height at the edge of the convective core as given by the Schwarzschild criterion, and alpha(ov) is a free parameter. We find a relation between alpha(ov) and mass that is defined much more clearly than in previous work, and indicates a significant rise up to about 2 solar masses followed by little or no change beyond this mass. No appreciable dependence is seen with evolutionary state at a given mass, or with metallicity at a given mass despite the fact that the stars in our sample span a range of a factor of ten in [Fe/H], from -1.01 to +0.01.
Yearslong time series of high-precision brightness measurements have been assembled for thousands of stars with telescopes operating in space. Such data have allowed astronomers to measure the physics of stellar interiors via nonradial oscillations, opening a new avenue to study the stars in the Universe. Asteroseismology, the interpretation of the characteristics of oscillation modes in terms of the physical properties of the stellar interior, brought entirely new insights in how stars rotate and how they build up their chemistry throughout their evolution. Data-driven space asteroseismology delivered a drastic increase in the reliability of computer models mimicking the evolution of stars born with a variety of masses and metallicities. Such models are critical ingredients for modern physics as a whole, because they are used throughout various contemporary and multidisciplinary research fields in space science, including the search for life outside the solar system, archaeological studies of the Milky Way, and the study of single and binary supernova progenitors, among which are future gravitational wave sources. The specific role and potential of asteroseismology for those modern research fields are illustrated. The review concludes with current limitations of asteroseismology and highlights how they can be overcome with ongoing and future large infrastructures for survey astronomy combined with new theoretical research in the era of high-performance computing. This review presents results obtained through major community efforts over the past decade. These breakthroughs were achieved in a collaborative and inclusive spirit that is characteristic of the asteroseismology community. The reviews aim is to make this research field accessible to graduate students and readers coming from other fields of physics, with incentives to join future applications in this domain of astrophysics.