No Arabic abstract
Asteroseismology with the space-borne missions CoRoT and Kepler provides a powerful mean of testing the modeling of transport processes in stars. Rotational splittings are currently measured for a large number of red giant stars and can provide stringent constraints on the rotation profiles. The aim of this paper is to obtain a theoretical framework for understanding the properties of the observed rotational splittings of red giant stars with slowly rotating cores. This allows us to establish appropriate seismic diagnostics for rotation of these evolved stars. Rotational splittings for stochastically excited dipolar modes are computed adopting a first-order perturbative approach for two $1.3 M_odot$ benchmark models assuming slowly rotating cores. For red giant stars with slowly rotating cores, we show that the variation of the rotational splittings of $ell=1$ modes with frequency depends only on the large frequency separation, the g-mode period spacing, and the ratio of the average envelope to core rotation rates (${cal R}$). This leds us to propose a way to infer directly ${cal R}$ from the observations. This method is validated using the Kepler red giant star KIC 5356201. Finally, we provide a theoretical support for the use of a Lorentzian profile to measure the observed splittings for red giant stars.
Rotational splittings are currently measured for several main sequence stars and a large number of red giants with the space mission Kepler. This will provide stringent constraints on rotation profiles. Our aim is to obtain seismic constraints on the internal transport and surface loss of angular momentum of oscillating solar-like stars. To this end, we study the evolution of rotational splittings from the pre-main sequence to the red-giant branch for stochastically excited oscillation modes. We modified the evolutionary code CESAM2K to take rotationally induced transport in radiative zones into account. Linear rotational splittings were computed for a sequence of $1.3 M_{odot}$ models. Rotation profiles were derived from our evolutionary models and eigenfunctions from linear adiabatic oscillation calculations. We find that transport by meridional circulation and shear turbulence yields far too high a core rotation rate for red-giant models compared with recent seismic observations. We discuss several uncertainties in the physical description of stars that could have an impact on the rotation profiles. For instance, we find that the Goldreich-Schubert-Fricke instability does not extract enough angular momentum from the core to account for the discrepancy. In contrast, an increase of the horizontal turbulent viscosity by 2 orders of magnitude is able to significantly decrease the central rotation rate on the red-giant branch. Our results indicate that it is possible that the prescription for the horizontal turbulent viscosity largely underestimates its actual value or else a mechanism not included in current stellar models of low mass stars is needed to slow down the rotation in the radiative core of red-giant stars.
Since the end of 2018, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) provides high-quality space data on stellar photometry to the astronomical community. We present the results of an analysis of TESS photometric data for known slowly rotating magnetic chemically peculiar (mCP) stars. In general, mCP stars show an inhomogeneous distribution of elements in their stellar atmospheres that leads to spectroscopic (line profile) and photometric (light curve) variations over the rotation period. In the frame of the oblique magnetic rotator (OMR) model, patches of enhanced chemical abundance on the stellar surface reveal the frequency of stellar rotation. Using this approach, we have compiled a list of slowly rotating mCP stars with rotation periods longer than two days from the analysis of the photometric data provided by TESS for the first eight sectors of observations. Slowly rotating mCP stars usually possess a hydrodynamically stable stellar atmosphere where a magnetic field can amplify the process of atomic diffusion and leads to the horizontal and vertical stratification of chemical abundances.
Transport of angular momentum is a long-standing problem in stellar physics which recently became more acute thanks to the observations of the space-borne mission emph{Kepler}. Indeed, the need for an efficient mechanism able to explain the rotation profile of low-mass stars has been emphasized by asteroseimology and waves are among the potential candidates to do so. In this article, our objective is not to review all the literature related to the transport of angular momentum by waves but rather to emphasize the way it is to be computed in stellar models. We stress that to model wave transport of angular momentum is a non-trivial issue that requires to properly account for interactions between meridional circulation and waves. Also, while many authors only considered the effect of the wave momentum flux in the mean momentum equation, we show that this is an incomplete picture that prevents from grasping the main physics of the problem. We thus present the Transform Eulerian Formalism (TEM) which enable to properly address the problem.
According to standard stellar evolution, lithium is destroyed throughout most of the evolution of low- to intermediate-mass stars. However, a number of evolved stars on the red giant branch (RGB) and the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) are known to contain a considerable amount of Li, whose origin is not always understood well. Here we present the latest development on the observational side to obtain a better understanding of Li-rich K giants (RGB), moderately Li-rich low-mass stars on the AGB, as well as very Li-rich intermediate-mass AGB stars possibly undergoing the standard hot bottom burning phase. These last ones probably also enrich the interstellar medium with freshly produced Li.
It is thought that magnetic fields must be present in the interiors of stars to resolve certain discrepancies between theory and observation (e.g. angular momentum transport), but such fields are difficult to detect and characterise. Asteroseismology is a powerful technique for inferring the internal structures of stars by measuring their oscillation frequencies, and succeeds particularly with evolved stars, owing to their mixed modes, which are sensitive to the deep interior. The goal of this work is to present a phenomenological study of the combined effects of rotation and magnetism in evolved stars, where both are assumed weak enough that first-order perturbation theory applies, and we focus on the regime where Coriolis and Lorentz forces are comparable. Axisymmetric twisted-torus field configurations are used, which are confined to the core and allowed to be misaligned with respect to the rotation axis. Factors such as the field radius, topology and obliquity are examined. We observe that fields with finer-scale radial structure and/or smaller radial extent produce smaller contributions to the frequency shift. The interplay of rotation and magnetism is shown to be complex: we demonstrate that it is possible for nearly symmetric multiplets of apparently low multiplicity to arise even under a substantial field, which might falsely appear to rule out its presence. Our results suggest that proper modelling of rotation and magnetism, in a simultaneous fashion, may be required to draw robust conclusions about the existence/non-existence of a core magnetic field in any given object.