Gaussian Process modelling of granulation and oscillations in red-giant stars
Filipe Pereira, Tiago L. Campante, Margarida S. Cunha, João P. Faria, Nuno C. Santos, Susana C. C. Barros, Olivier Demangeon, James S. Kuszlewicz, Enrico Corsaro
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Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 12 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables
The analysis of photometric time series in the context of transiting planet surveys suffers from the presence of stellar signals, often dubbed "stellar noise". These signals, caused by stellar oscillations and granulation, can usually be disregarded for main-sequence stars, as the stellar contributions average out when phase-folding the light curve. For evolved stars, however, the amplitudes of such signals are larger and the timescales similar to the transit duration of short-period planets, requiring that they be modeled alongside the transit. With the promise of TESS delivering on the order of $\sim\!10^5$ light curves for stars along the red-giant branch, there is a need for a method capable of describing the "stellar noise" while simultaneously modelling an exoplanet's transit. In this work, a Gaussian Process regression framework is used to model stellar light curves and the method validated by applying it to TESS-like artificial data. Furthermore, the method is used to characterize the stellar oscillations and granulation of a sample of well-studied \textit{Kepler} low-luminosity red-giant branch stars. The parameters determined are compared to equivalent ones obtained by modelling the power spectrum of the light curve. Results show that the method presented is capable of describing the stellar signals in the time domain and can also return an accurate and precise measurement of $ν_\text{max}$, i.e., the frequency of maximum oscillation amplitude. Preliminary results show that using the method in transit modelling improves the precision and accuracy of the ratio between the planetary and stellar radius, $R_p/R_\star$. The method's implementation is publicly available.
We have developed a new automated method intended to perform the simultaneous - and thus more consistent - measurement of both the seismic indices characterizing the oscillations and the parameters characterizing the granulation signature of red-giant stars. This method, called MLEUP, takes advantage of the Maximum Likelihood Estimate (MLE) algorithm combined with the parametrized representation of red giant pulsation spectra following the Universal Pattern (UP). Its performances have been tested on Monte Carlo simulations for observation conditions representative of CoRoT and Kepler data. The…
The effect of metallicity on the granulation activity in stars is still poorly understood. Available spectroscopic parameters from the updated APOGEE-\textit{Kepler} catalog, coupled with high-precision photometric observations from NASA's \textit{Kepler} mission spanning more than four years of observation, make oscillating red giant stars in open clusters crucial testbeds. We determine the role of metallicity on the stellar granulation activity by discriminating its effect from that of different stellar properties such as surface gravity, mass, and temperature. We analyze 60 known red giant …
Context: The study of stellar structure and evolution depends crucially on accurate stellar parameters. The photometry from space telescopes has provided superb data that allowed asteroseismic characterisation of thousands of stars. However, typical targets of space telescopes are rather faint and complementary measurements are difficult to obtain. On the other hand, the brightest, otherwise well-studied stars, are lacking seismic characterization. Aims: Our goal is to use the granulation and/or oscillation time scales measured from photometric time series of bright red giants (1.6$\leq$Vmag$\…
The Kepler mission has provided exquisite data to perform an ensemble asteroseismic analysis on evolved stars. In this work we systematically characterize solar-like oscillations and granulation for 16,094 oscillating red giants, using end-of-mission long-cadence data. We produced a homogeneous catalog of the frequency of maximum power (typical uncertainty $σ_{ν_{\rm max}}$=1.6\%), the mean large frequency separation ($σ_{Δν}$=0.6\%), oscillation amplitude ($σ_{\rm A}$=4.7\%), granulation power ($σ_{\rm gran}$=8.6\%), power excess width ($σ_{\rm width}$=8.8\%), seismically-derived stellar mass…
Tens of thousands of solar-like oscillating stars have been observed by space missions. Their photometric variability in the Fourier domain can be parameterized by a sum of two super-Lorentizian functions for granulation and a Gaussian-shaped power excess for oscillation. The photometric granulation/oscillation parameters scale with stellar parameters and they can also make predictions for corresponding parameters in radial velocity measurements. Based on scaling relations, we simulate realistic radial velocity time series and examine how the root-mean-square scatter of radial velocity measure…
Surface granulation can be predicted with the mass, metallicity, and frequency of maximum power of a star. Using the orders-of-magnitude larger APOGEE-Kepler sample, we recalibrate the relationship fit by Corsaro et al. (2017) for "flicker", an easier-to-compute diagnostic of this granulation. We find that the relationship between the stellar parameters and flicker is significantly different for dwarf and subgiant stars than it is for red giants. We also confirm a dependence of flicker amplitude on metallicity as seen originally by Corsaro et al. (2017), although the dependence found here is s…
The mechanism and characteristics of the irregular variations of red supergiants (RSGs) are studied based on the RSG samples in Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and M31. With the time-series data from All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) and Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory survey, we use the continuous time autoregressive moving average model to estimate the variability features of the light curves and their power spectral density. The characteristic evolution timescale and amplitude of granulations are further derived from fitting the posterior po…
We present a detailed analysis of the bright Cepheid-type variable star V1154 Cygni using 4 years of continuous observations by the Kepler space telescope. We detected 28 frequencies using standard Fourier transform method.We identified modulation of the main pulsation frequency and its harmonics with a period of ~159 d. This modulation is also present in the Fourier parameters of the light curve and the O-C diagram. We detected another modulation with a period of about 1160 d. The star also shows significant power in the low-frequency region that we identified as granulation noise. The effect…
In spite of the huge advances in exoplanet research provided by the NASA Kepler Mission, there remain only a small number of transit detections around evolved stars. Here we present a reformulation of the noise properties of red-giant stars, where the intrinsic stellar granulation, and the stellar oscillations described by asteroseismology play a key role. The new noise model is a significant improvement on the current Kepler results for evolved stars. Our noise model may be used to help understand planet detection thresholds for the ongoing K2 and upcoming TESS missions, and serve as a predic…
Sensitivity of spectral lines to granulation: The Sun
Institute of Physics, University of Graz（格拉茨大学物理研究所）；Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung（马普太阳系研究所）；Centre for Exoplanet Science, SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews（圣安德鲁斯大学天体物理与天文学院系外行星科学中心）
Theoretical scaling relations for solar-like oscillators and red giants are widely used to estimate fundamental stellar parameters. The accuracy and precision of these relations have often been questioned in the literature, with studies often utilising binarity for model-independent validation. However, it has not been tested if the photometric effects of binarity introduce a systematic effect on the extraction of the seismic properties of the pulsating component(s). In this paper, we present an estimation of the impact of a contaminating photometric signal with a distinct background profile o…
We studied the influence of convection on the spectral energy distributions, photometric magnitudes, and colour indices of different types of stars across the H-R diagram. The 3D hydrodynamical CO5BOLD, averaged <3D>, and 1D hydrostatic LHD model atmospheres were used to compute spectral energy distributions of stars on the main sequence (MS), main sequence turn-off (TO), subgiant branch (SGB), and red giant branch (RGB), in each case at two different effective temperatures and two metallicities, [M/H]=0.0 and -2.0. Using the obtained spectral energy distributions, we calculated photometric ma…
Stellar surface magnetoconvection (granulation) creates asymmetries in the observed stellar absorption lines that can subsequently manifest themselves as spurious radial velocities shifts. In turn, this can then mask the Doppler-reflex motion induced by orbiting planets on their host stars, and represents a particular challenge for determining the masses of low-mass, long-period planets. Herein, we study this impact by creating Sun-as-a-star observations that encapsulate the granulation variability expected from 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations. These Sun-as-a-star model observations are in …
A poor understanding of the impact of convective turbulence in the outer layers of the Sun and Sun-like stars challenges the advance towards an improved understanding of their internal structure and dynamics. Assessing and calibrating these effects is therefore of great importance. Here we study the spatial coherence of granulation noise and oscillation modes in the Sun, with the aim of exploiting any incoherence to beat-down observed granulation noise, hence improving the detection of low-frequency p-modes. Using data from the BiSON 2B instrument, we assess the coherence between different atm…
Driven largely by multiple ground-based radial-velocity (RV) surveys and photometric space missions such as Kepler and K2, the discovery of new exoplanets has increased rapidly since the early 2000s. However, due to a target selection bias in favor of main-sequence stars, only a handful of transiting planets have been found orbiting evolved hosts. These planets, most of which are giants, hold important information regarding the formation and evolution of planetary systems. In this thesis, I sought to increase the sample of known giant planets orbiting red-giant stars, focusing on data from NAS…
Solar photospheric spectrum microvariability III. Radial velocities and line profiles in magnetic active-region granulation
Lund University（隆德大学）；Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Landessternwarte（海德堡大学天文中心，州立天文台）；Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam（波茨坦阿诺德·爱因斯坦天体物理研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利群岛天体物理学研究所）；Texas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校高级计算中心）
University of Warwick（华威大学）；University of Graz（格拉茨大学）；Queen’s University Belfast（贝尔法斯特女王大学）；Flinders University（弗林德斯大学）；Flatiron Institute（平顿研究所）；Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung（马克斯·普朗克太阳系研究所）
Radial-velocity (RV) jitter due to intrinsic stellar variability introduces challenges when characterizing exoplanet systems, particularly when studying small (sub-Neptune-sized) planets orbiting solar-type stars. In this Letter we predicted for dwarfs and giants the jitter due to stellar oscillations, which in velocity have much larger amplitudes than noise introduced by granulation. We then fitted the jitter in terms of the following sets of stellar parameters: (1) Luminosity, mass, and effective temperature: the fit returns precisions (i.e., standard deviations of fractional residuals) of 1…
The Doppler line shifts in the spectra of the Sun and stars with effective temperatures from 4800 to 6200 K were measured and the average connective (granulation) velocities were estimated. The absolute scale of the line shifts for the stars was established on the basis of the derived dependence of the shifts of solar lines on optical depth. For FGK solar-type stars, curves of convection velocities as a function of the height in the atmosphere in a large range of heights from 150 to 700 km were obtained for the first time. All these curves indicate a decrease in blue shifts with height, which …
We present the Bayesian Asteroseismology data Modeling (BAM) pipeline, an automated asteroseismology pipeline that returns global oscillation parameters and granulation parameters from the analysis of photometric time-series. BAM also determines if a star is likely to be a solar-like oscillator. We have designed BAM to specially process ${\it K2}$ light curves, which suffer from unique noise signatures that can confuse asteroseismic analysis, though it may be used on any photometric time series --- including those from ${\it Kepler}$ and ${\it TESS}$. We demonstrate the BAM oscillation paramet…
A scatter plot of exoplanet mass against red giant host star radius demonstrates an interesting positive trend: larger stars have more massive planets. This implies that the evolution of a star towards a red giant affects the masses of planets in the system.
We present HD-TESS, a catalog of 1,709 bright ($V\sim3-10$) red giants from the Henry Draper (HD) Catalog with asteroseismic measurements based on photometry from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Using light curves spanning at least six months across a single TESS observing cycle, we provide measurements of global asteroseismic parameters ($ν_{\mathrm{max}}$ and $Δν$) and evolutionary state for each star in the catalog. We adopt literature values of atmospheric stellar parameters to estimate the masses and radii of the giants in our catalog using asteroseismic scaling relat…
In the near future we will have ground- and space-based telescopes that are designed to observe and characterize Earth-like planets. While attention is focused on exoplanets orbiting main sequence stars, more than 150 exoplanets have already been detected orbiting red giants, opening the intriguing question of what rocky worlds orbiting in the habitable zone of red giants would be like and how to characterize them. We model reflection and emission spectra of Earth-like planets orbiting in the habitable zone of red giant hosts with surface temperatures between 5200 and 3900 K at the Earth-equiv…
Every Sun-like star will eventually evolve into a red giant, a transition which can profoundly affect the evolution of a surrounding planetary system. The timescale of dynamical planet evolution and orbital decay has important implications for planetary habitability, as well as post-main sequence star and planet interaction, evolution and internal structure. Here, we investigate these effects by estimating planet occurrence around 2476 low-luminosity red giant branch (LLRGB) stars observed by the NASA K2 mission. We measure stellar masses and radii using asteroseismology, with median random un…
Binary stars are places of complex stellar interactions. While all binaries are in principle converging towards a state of circularization, many eccentric systems are found even in advanced stellar phases. In this work we discuss the sample of binaries with a red-giant component, discovered from observations of the NASA Kepler space mission. We first discuss which effects and features of tidal interactions are detectable in photometry, spectroscopy and the seismic analysis. In a second step, the sample of binary systems observed with Kepler, is compared to the well studied sample of Verbunt & …
The Kepler mission observed many thousands of red giants. The long time series, some as long as the mission itself, have allowed us to study red giants with unprecedented detail. Given that red giants are intrinsically luminous, and hence can be observed from very large distances, knowing the properties of red giants, in particular ages, is of immense value for studies of the formation and evolution of the Galaxy, an endeavor known as "Galactic archaeology". In this article we review what we have learned about red giants using asteroseismic data. We start with the properties of the power spect…
The detection of mixed modes in red giants with space missions CoRoT and Kepler has revealed their deep internal structure. These modes allow us to characterize the pattern of pressure modes (through the measurement of their asymptotic frequency separation $Δν$) and the pattern of gravity modes (through the determination of their asymptotic period spacing $ΔΠ_1$). It has been shown that red giant branch (RGB) stars regroup on a well-defined sequence in the $Δν$-$ΔΠ_1$ plane. Our first goal is to theoretically explain the features of this sequence and understand how it can be used to probe the …
Red giant stars are solar-like pulsators presenting mixed-modes. Such modes consist in a coupling between pressure waves propagating in the external convective envelope and gravity waves propagating in the radiative interior. Therefore, the red giant asteroseismology provides us with a direct view on their core and opens the possibility to monitor the evolution of their core rotation. Previous measurements of the mean core rotation revealed that angular momentum is efficiently transferred from the core to the envelope inside red giants, but the physical mechanisms at work are not yet fully und…
Lithium abundances in red giants of M4: evidence for asymptotic giant branch star pollution in globular clusters?
在球状星团（GC）巨人的Li和质子捕获元素丰度的测定，使我们能够限制在GC中的多个人口情景的几个关键问题，从形成和早期演化，污染和稀释机制。在这封信中，我们提出了我们的结果，对大样本的巨人在中间金属丰度GC NGC 6121（M4），其中钠和O已经确定了马里诺等人。分析的恒星都低于和高于红巨星分支凸点光度。我们发现第一代和第二代恒星具有相同的Li含量，这表明Li生产一定发生过。这是一个强有力的观测证据，支持渐近巨星分支星是GC污染者的假设。
The Kepler mission has been a success in both exoplanet search and stellar physics studies. Red giants have actually been quite a highlight in the Kepler scene. The Kepler long and almost continuous four-year observations allowed us to detect oscillations in more than 15,000 red giants targeted by the mission. However by looking at the power spectra of 45,000 stars classified as dwarfs according to the Q1-16 Kepler star properties catalog, we detected red-giant like oscillations in 850 stars. Even though this is a small addition to the known red-giant sample, these misclassified stars represen…
Asteroseismology allows us to probe stellar interiors. Mixed modes can be used to probe the physical conditions in red giant cores. However, we still need to identify the physical mechanisms that transport angular momentum inside red giants, leading to the slow-down observed for the red giant core rotation. Thus large-scale measurements of the red giant core rotation are of prime importance to obtain tighter constraints on the efficiency of the internal angular momentum transport, and to study how this efficiency changes with stellar parameters. This work aims at identifying the components of …
