Asteroseismology of evolved stars to constrain the internal transport of angular momentum. III. Using the rotation rates of intermediate-mass stars to test the Fuller-formalism
J. W. den Hartogh, P. Eggenberger, S. Deheuvels
备注：
Accepted in A&A as letter (reference: AA/2020/37568)
Context: The internal characteristics of stars, such as their core rotation rates, are obtained via asteroseismic observations. A comparison of core rotation rates found in this way with core rotation rates as predicted by stellar evolution models demonstrate a large discrepancy. This means that there must be a process of angular momentum transport missing in the current theory of stellar evolution. A new formalism was recently proposed to fill in for this missing process, which has the Tayler instability as its starting point (hereafter referred to as `Fuller-formalism'). Aims: We investigate the effect of the Fuller-formalism on the internal rotation of stellar models with an initial mass of 2.5 Mo. Methods: Stellar evolution models, including the Fuller-formalism, of intermediate-mass stars were calculated to make a comparison between asteroseismically obtained core rotation rates in the core He burning phase and in the white dwarf phase. Results: Our main results show that models including the Fuller-formalism can match the core rotation rates obtained for the core He burning phases. However, these models are unable to match the rotation rates obtained for white dwarfs. When we exclude the Fuller-formalism at the end of the core He burning phase, the white dwarf rotation rates of the models match the observed rates. Conclusions: We conclude that in the present form, the Fuller-formalism cannot be the sole solution for the missing process of angular momentum transport in intermediate-mass stars.
Lithium has confused scientists for decades at almost each scale of the universe. Lithium-rich giants are peculiar stars with lithium abundances over model prediction. A large fraction of lithium-rich low-mass evolved stars are traditionally supposed to be red giant branch (RGB) stars. Recent studies, however, report that red clump (RC) stars are more frequent than RGB. Here, we present a uniquely large systematic study combining the direct asteroseismic analysis with the spectroscopy on the lithium-rich stars. The majority of lithium-rich stars are confirmed to be RCs, whereas RGBs are minor.…
Yellow straggler stars (YSSs) fall above the subgiant branch in optical color-magnitude diagrams, between the blue stragglers and the red giants. YSSs may represent a population of evolved blue stragglers, but none have the direct and precise mass and radius measurements needed to determine their evolutionary states and formation histories. Here we report the first asteroseismic mass and radius measurements of such a star, the yellow straggler S1237 in the open cluster M67. We apply asteroseismic scaling relations to a frequency analysis of the Kepler K2 light curve and find a mass of 2.9 $\pm…
Context: Asteroseismic measurements reveal that an unknown efficient angular momentum (AM) transport mechanism is needed for subgiant and red giant stars. A revised prescription for AM transport by the magnetic Tayler instability has been recently proposed as a possible candidate for such a missing mechanism. Results: The revised prescription for the transport by the Tayler instability leads to low core rotation rates after the main sequence that are in better global agreement with asteroseismic measurements than those predicted by models with purely hydrodynamic processes or with the original…
After highlighting the principle and power of asteroseismology for stellar physics, we briefly emphasize some recent progress in this research for various types of stars. We give an overview of high-precision high duty-cycle space photometry of OB-type stars. Further, we update the overview of seismic estimates of stellar parameters of OB dwarfs, with specific emphasis on convective core overshoot. We discuss connections between pulsational, rotational, and magnetic variability of massive stars and end with future prospects for asteroseismology of evolved OB stars.
Thanks to asteroseismology, constraints on the core rotation rate are available for hundreds of low- and intermediate-mass stars in evolved phases. Current physical processes tested in stellar evolution models cannot reproduce the evolution of these core rotation rates. We investigate the efficiency of the internal angular momentum redistribution in red giants during the hydrogen shell and core-helium burning phases based on the asteroseismic determinations of their core rotation rates. We compute stellar evolution models with rotation and model the transport of angular momentum by the action …
Context: The observations of solar-like oscillations in evolved stars have brought important constraints on their internal rotation rates. To correctly reproduce these data, an efficient transport mechanism is needed in addition to meridional circulation and shear instability. Aims: We study the efficiency of the transport of angular momentum during the subgiant phase. Results: The precise asteroseismic measurements of both core and surface rotation rates available for the six Kepler targets enable a precise determination of the efficiency of the transport of angular momentum needed for each o…
Asteroseismology of evolved stars to constrain the internal transport of angular momentum. VI. Testing a parametric formulation for the azimuthal magneto-rotational instability
Almost 100 years ago Sir Arthur Eddington noted that the interiors of stars were inaccessible to observations. The advent of helio- and asteroseismology has completely changed this assessment. Helioseismology has provided very detailed information about the interior structure and dynamics of the Sun, highlighting remaining issues in our understanding of the solar interior. In the last decade extensive observations of stellar oscillations, in particular from space photometry, have provided very detailed information about the global and internal properties of stars. Here I provide an overview of…
The evolved main-sequence Sun-like stars KIC 10273246 (F-type) and KIC 10920273 (G-type) were observed with the NASA Kepler satellite for approximately ten months with a duty cycle in excess of 90%. Such continuous and long observations are unprecedented for solar-type stars other than the Sun. We aimed mainly at extracting estimates of p-mode frequencies - as well as of other individual mode parameters - from the power spectra of the light curves of both stars, thus providing scope for a full seismic characterization. The light curves were corrected for instrumental effects in a manner indepe…
Pulsation frequencies reveal the interior structures of white dwarf stars, shedding light on the properties of these compact objects that represent the final evolutionary stage of most stars. Two-minute cadence photometry from TESS will record pulsation signatures from bright white dwarfs over the entire sky. We aim to demonstrate the sensitivity of TESS data to measuring pulsations of helium-atmosphere white dwarfs in the DBV instability strip, and what asteroseismic analysis of these measurements can constrain about their stellar structures. We present a case study of the pulsating DBV WD 01…
The observations of global stellar oscillations of post main-sequence stars by space-based photometry missions allowed to directly determine their internal rotation. These constraints have pointed towards the existence of angular momentum transport processes unaccounted for in theoretical models. Constraining the properties of their internal rotation thus appears as the golden path to determine the physical nature of these missing dynamical processes. We wish to determine the robustness of a new approach to study the internal rotation of post main-sequence stars, using parametric rotation prof…
Observations from the Kepler satellite were recently published for three bright G-type stars, which were monitored during the first 33.5d of science operations. One of these stars, KIC 11026764, exhibits a characteristic pattern of oscillation frequencies suggesting that the star has evolved significantly. We have derived initial estimates of the properties of KIC 11026764 from the oscillation frequencies observed by Kepler, combined with ground-based spectroscopic data. We present preliminary results from detailed modeling of this star, employing a variety of independent codes and analyses th…
This study is the first of a series of papers that provide a technique to analyse the mixed-modes frequency spectra and characterise the structure of stars on the subgiant and red-giant branches. We define seismic indicators, relevant of the stellar structure and study their evolution on a grid of models. The proposed method, EGGMiMoSA, relies on the asymptotic description of mixed modes, defines initial guesses for the parameters, and uses a Levenberg-Marquardt technique to adjust the mixed-modes pattern efficiently. We follow the evolution of the mixed-modes parameters along a grid of models…
Mass loss remains a major uncertainty in stellar modelling. In low-mass stars, mass loss is most significant on the red giant branch (RGB), and will impact the star's evolutionary path and final stellar remnant. Directly measuring the mass difference of stars in various phases of evolution represents one of the best ways to quantify integrated mass loss. Globular clusters (GCs) are ideal objects for this. M4 is currently the only GC for which asteroseismic data exists for stars in multiple phases of evolution. Using K2 photometry, we report asteroseismic masses for 75 red giants in M4, the lar…
Stellar models rely on a number of free parameters. High-quality observations of eclipsing binary stars observed by Kepler offer a great opportunity to calibrate model parameters for evolved stars. Our study focuses on six Kepler red giants with the goal of calibrating the mixing-length parameter of convection as well as the asteroseismic surface term in models. We introduce a new method to improve the identification of oscillation modes which exploits theoretical frequencies to guide the mode identification ('peak-bagging') stage of the data analysis. Our results indicate that the convective …
Over the past decade asteroseismology has become a powerful method to systematically characterize host stars and dynamical architectures of exoplanet systems. In this contribution I review current key synergies between asteroseismology and exoplanetary science such as the precise determination of planet radii and ages, the measurement of orbital eccentricities, stellar obliquities and their impact on hot Jupiter formation theories, and the importance of asteroseismology on spectroscopic analyses of exoplanet hosts. I also give an outlook on future synergies such as the characterization of sub-…
Space-based asteroseismology has been playing an important role in the characterization of exoplanet-host stars and their planetary systems. The future looks even brighter, with space missions such as NASA's TESS and ESA's PLATO ready to take on this legacy. In this contribution, we provide an outlook on the synergy between asteroseismology and exoplanet science, namely, on the prospect of conducting a populational study of giant planets around oscillating evolved stars with the TESS mission.
Grids of DOV star models are evolved by \texttt{WDEC} with fixed atmospheric constituent to the spectral values of $X_{C}/X_{He}/X_{O}$ = 50/33/17. The core compositions are from white dwarf models at highest $T_{eff}$ evolved by \texttt{MESA}. The eigenfrequencies are calculated and used to fit the observed modes. Based on 264.1 hours of photometric observations on PG 1159-035, Winget et al. identified 125 individual frequencies. Costa et al. identified 198 pulsation modes for PG 1159-035 according to the WET photometric data from 1983, 1985, 1989, and 2002. Both of them derived frequency spl…
Asteroseismology has revealed that cores of red giants rotate about one order of magnitude faster than their convective envelopes. This paper attempts an explanation for this rotational state in terms of the theory of angular momentum transport in stellar convection zones. A differential rotation model based on the theory is applied to a sequence of evolutionary states of a red giant of one solar mass. The model computations show a rotation of about ten times faster in the cores compared to the stellar surface. This rotational state is caused by the non-diffusive downward convective transport …
Asteroseismology of evolved solar-like stars is experiencing a growing interest due to the wealth of observational data from space-borne instruments such as the \emph{CoRoT} and \emph{Kepler} spacecraft. In particular, the recent detection of mixed modes, which probe both the innermost and uppermost layers of stars, paves the way for inferring the internal structure of stars along their evolution through the subgiant and red giant phases. Mixed modes can also place stringent constraints on the physics of such stars and on their global properties (mass, age, etc...). Here, using two \emph{Keple…
Stellar evolution calculations have had great success reproducing the observed atmospheric properties of different classes of stars. Recent detections of g-mode pulsations in evolved He burning stars allow a rare comparison of their internal structure with stellar models. Asteroseismology of subdwarf B stars suggests convective cores of $0.22-0.28\,M_\odot$, $\gtrsim 45\,\%$ of the total stellar mass. Previous studies found significantly smaller convective core masses ($\lesssim 0.19\,M_\odot$) at a comparable evolutionary stage. We evolved stellar models with MESA (Modules for Experiments in …
Solar-like oscillating giants observed by the space-borne satellites CoRoT and Kepler can be used as key tracers of stellar populations in the Milky Way. When combined with additional photometric/spectroscopic constraints, the pulsation spectra of solar-like oscillating giant stars not only reveal their radii, and hence distances, but also provide well-constrained estimates of their masses, which can be used as proxies for the ages of these evolved stars. In this contribution we provide supplementary material to the comparison we presented in Miglio et al. (2013) between populations of giants …
The ZZ Ceti star GD 1212 was detected to have 19 independent modes from the two-wheel-controlled Kepler Spacecraft in 2014. By asymptotic analysis, we identify most of pulsation modes. We find out two set of complete triplets, and four sets of doublet which are interpreted as rotation modes with $l=1$. For the other five modes, the four modes $f_{13}$, $f_{15}$, $f_{16}$ and $f_{4}$ are identified as ones with $l=2$; and the mode $f_{7}$ is identified to be the one with $l=1$. Meanwhile we derive a mean rotation period of $6.65\pm0.21$ h for GD 1212 according to the rotation splitting. Using t…
The DAV star R808 was observed by 13 different telescopes for more than 170 hours in April 2008 on the WET run XCOV26. 25 independent pulsation frequencies were identified by this data set. We assumed 19 $m$ = 0 modes and performed an asteroseismological study on those 19 modes. We evolve grids of DAV star models by \texttt{WDEC} adopting the element diffusion scheme with pure and screened Coulomb potential effect. The core compositions are from white dwarf models evolved by \texttt{MESA}, which are thermal nuclear burning results. Our best fitting model is from the screened Coulomb potential …
Most previous efforts to calibrate how rotation and magnetic activity depend on stellar age and mass have relied on observations of clusters, where isochrones from stellar evolution models are used to determine the properties of the ensemble. Asteroseismology employs similar models to measure the properties of an individual star by matching its normal modes of oscillation, yielding the stellar age and mass with high precision. We use 27 days of photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite to characterize solar-like oscillations in the G8 subgiant of the 94 Aqr triple system. The r…
L19-2 is a DAV star, which has been intermittently observed from 1976 to 2013. Five independent pulsation modes of 350\,s, 192\,s, 143\,s, 118\,s, and 113\,s are identified. The five modes can be used to constrain the fitting models. The rates of period change can be obtained through the O-C method for modes of 192\,s and 113\,s, which can be used to study the evolution effect of DAV stars. Using the \texttt{WDEC} (2018 version), a large sample DAV star models are evolved. The theoretical modes are calculated and used to fit the observed modes. After fine model fittings, we obtain an optimal m…
A precise characterisation of the red giants in the seismology fields of the CoRoT satellite is a prerequisite for further in-depth seismic modelling. High-resolution FEROS and HARPS spectra were obtained as part of the ground-based follow-up campaigns for 19 targets holding great asteroseismic potential. These data are used to accurately estimate their fundamental parameters and the abundances of 16 chemical species in a self-consistent manner. Some powerful probes of mixing are investigated (the Li and CNO abundances, as well as the carbon isotopic ratio in a few cases). The information prov…
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…
The candidate SX Phe star KIC 11754974 shows a remarkably high number of combination frequencies in the Fourier amplitude spectrum: 123 of the 166 frequencies in our multi-frequency fit are linear combinations of independent modes. Predictable patterns in frequency spacings are seen in the Fourier transform of the light curve. We present an analysis of 180 d of short-cadence Kepler photometry and of new spectroscopic data for this evolved, late A-type star. We infer from the 1150-d, long-cadence light curve, and in two different ways, that our target is the primary of a 343-d, non-eclipsing bi…
Determining fundamental properties of stars through stellar modeling has improved substantially due to recent advances in asteroseismology. Thanks to the unprecedented data quality obtained by space missions, particularly CoRoT and Kepler, invaluable information is extracted from the high-precision stellar oscillation frequencies, which provide very strong constraints on possible stellar models for a given set of classical observations. In this work, we have characterized two relatively faint stars, KIC10920273 and KIC11395018, using oscillation data from Kepler photometry and atmospheric cons…
Space asteroseismology reveals that stellar structure and evolution models of intermediate- and high-mass stars are in need of improvement in terms of angular momentum and chemical element transport. We aim to probe the interior structure of a hot massive star in the core-hydrogen burning phase of its evolution. We analyse CoRoT space photometry, Gaia DR2 space astrometry, and high-resolution high signal-to-noise HERMES and HARPS time-series spectroscopy of the slowly rotating B2V star HD 170580. From the time-series spectroscopy we derive $vsini=4\pm 2\,$km\,s$^{-1}$, where the uncertainty re…
The study of planet occurrence as a function of stellar mass is important for a better understanding of planet formation. Estimating stellar mass, especially in the red giant regime, is difficult. In particular, stellar masses of a sample of evolved planet-hosting stars based on spectroscopy and grid-based modelling have been put to question over the past decade with claims they were overestimated. Although efforts have been made in the past to reconcile this dispute using asteroseismology, results were inconclusive. In an attempt to resolve this controversy, we study four more evolved planet-…
Spectro-seismic measurements of red giants enabled the recent discovery of stars in the thick disk that are more massive than 1.4 M_sun. While it has been claimed that most of these stars are younger than the rest of the typical thick disk stars, we show evidence that they might be products of mass transfer in binary evolution, notably evolved blue stragglers. We took new measurements of the radial velocities in a sample of 26 stars from APOKASC, including 13 "young" stars and 13 "old" stars with similar stellar parameters but with masses below 1.2 M_sun and found that more of the "young" star…
Asteroseismology using space-based telescopes is vital to our understanding of stellar structure and evolution. {\textit{CoRoT}}, {\textit{Kepler}}, and {\textit{TESS}} space telescopes have detected large numbers of solar-like oscillating evolved stars. %(kaynaklar, Kallinger, vb ). Solar-like oscillation frequencies have an important role in the determination of fundamental stellar parameters; in the literature, the relations between the two is established by the so-called scaling relations. % These scaling relations are in better agreement with mass and radius of main-sequence stars with la…
Using the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer, we measured the angular diameters of 10 stars that have previously measured solar-like oscillations. Our sample covered a range of evolutionary stages but focused on evolved subgiant and giant stars. We combined our angular diameters with Hipparcos parallaxes to determine the stars' physical radii, and used photometry from the literature to calculate their bolometric fluxes, luminosities, and effective temperatures. We then used our results to test the scaling relations used by asteroseismology groups to calculate radii and found good agreement …
We studied solar-like oscillations in 115 red giants in the three open clusters NGC 6791, NGC 6811, and NGC 6819, based on photometric data covering more than 19 months with NASA's Kepler space telescope. We present the asteroseismic diagrams of the asymptotic parameters δν_02, δν_01 and ε, which show clear correlation with fundamental stellar parameters such as mass and radius. When the stellar populations from the clusters are compared, we see evidence for a difference in mass of the red giant branch stars, and possibly a difference in structure of the red clump stars, from our measurements …
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 evol…
Doppler-based planet surveys point to an increasing occurrence rate of giant planets with stellar mass. Such surveys rely on evolved stars for a sample of intermediate-mass stars (so-called retired A stars), which are more amenable to Doppler observations than their main-sequence progenitors. However, it has been hypothesised that the masses of subgiant and low-luminosity red-giant stars targeted by these surveys --- typically derived from a combination of spectroscopy and isochrone fitting --- may be systematically overestimated. Here, we test this hypothesis for the particular case of the ex…
We compute new chemical profiles for the core and envelope of white dwarfs appropriate for pulsational studies of ZZ Ceti stars. These profiles are extracted from the complete evolution of progenitor stars, evolved through the main sequence and the thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stages, and from time-dependent element diffusion during white dwarf evolution. We discuss the importance of the initial-final mass relationship for the white dwarf carbon-oxygen composition. In particular, we find that the central oxygen abundance may be underestimated by about 15% if the white dwarf …
As part of the search for planets around evolved stars, we can understand planet populations around significantly higher-mass stars than the Sun on the main sequence. This population is difficult to study any other way, particularly with radial-velocities since these stars are too hot and rotate too fast to measure precise velocities. Here we estimate stellar parameters for all of the giant stars from the EXPRESS project, which aims to detect planets orbiting evolved stars, and study their occurrence rate as a function of stellar mass. We analyse high resolution echelle spectra of these stars,…
Tidal interaction governs the redistribution of angular momentum in close binary stars and planetary systems and determines the systems evolution towards the possible equilibrium state. Turbulent friction acting on the equilibrium tide in the convective envelope of low-mass stars is known to have a strong impact on this exchange of angular momentum in binaries. Moreover, theoretical modelling in recent literature as well as presented in this paper suggests that the dissipation of the dynamical tide, constituted of tidal inertial waves propagating in the convective envelope, is weak compared to…
The field of asteroseismology has enjoyed a large swath of data coming from recent missions (e.g., CoRoT, Kepler, K2). This wealth of new data has allowed the field to expand beyond the previous limitation of a few extremely bright and evolved stars. Asteroseismology relies on accurate surface measurements for boundary conditions, but the predicted physical parameters in the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) are unreliable for hot stars. We present stellar parameters of 25 candidate pulsating B star candidates in the Kepler field. We use blue optical spectra to measure the projected rotational veloci…
Aims: We investigate from a theoretical perspective if space asteroseismology can be used to distinguish between different thermal structures and shapes of the near-core mixing profiles for different types of coherent oscillation modes in massive stars with convective cores, and if this capacity depends on the evolutionary stage of the models along the main sequence. Methods: We compute 1D stellar structure and evolution models for four different prescriptions of the mixing and temperature gradient in the near-core region. Their effect on the frequencies of dipole prograde gravity modes in bot…
Previously [Y/Mg] has been proven to be an age indicator for solar twins. Here, we investigate if this relation also holds for helium-core-burning stars of solar metallicity. High resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) spectroscopic data of stars in the helium-core-burning phase have been obtained with the FIES spectrograph on the NOT 2.56m telescope and the HIRES spectrograph on the Keck I 10 m telescope. They have been analyzed to determine the chemical abundances of four open clusters with close to solar metallicity; NGC 6811, NGC 6819, M67 and NGC 188. The abundances are derived f…
We present an independent confirmation of the zero-point offset of ${\rm \it Gaia}$ Data Release 2 (DR2) parallaxes using asteroseismic data of evolved stars in the ${\rm \it Kepler}$ field. Using well-characterized red giant branch (RGB) stars from the APOKASC-2 catalogue we identify a ${\rm \it Gaia}$ astrometric pseudo-color ($ν_{\rm eff}$)- and ${\rm \it Gaia}$ $G$-band magnitude-dependent zero-point offset of $\varpi_{\rm seis} - \varpi_{Gaia} = 52.8 \pm 2.4 {\rm\ (rand.)} \pm 8.6 {\rm\ (syst.)} - (150.7 \pm 22.7)(ν_{\rm eff} - 1.5) - (4.21 \pm 0.77)(G - 12.2) μ{\rm as}$, in the sense tha…
Asteroseismology of 1.0-2.0 Msun red giants by the Kepler satellite has enabled the first definitive measurements of interior rotation in both first ascent red giant branch (RGB) stars and those on the Helium burning clump. The inferred rotation rates are 10-30 days for the ~0.2Msun He degenerate cores on the RGB and 30-100 days for the He burning core in a clump star. Using the MESA code we calculate state-of-the-art stellar evolution models of low mass rotating stars from the zero-age main sequence to the cooling white dwarf (WD) stage. We include transport of angular momentum due to rotatio…
We report novel observational evidence on the evolutionary status of lithium-rich giant stars by combining asteroseismic and lithium abundance data. Comparing observations and models of the asteroseismic gravity-mode period spacing $ΔΠ_{1}$, we find that super-Li-rich giants (SLR, A(Li)~$> 3.2$~dex) are almost exclusively young red-clump (RC) stars. Depending on the exact phase of evolution, which requires more data to refine, SLR stars are either (i) less than $\sim 2$~Myr or (ii) less than $\sim40$~Myr past the main core helium flash (CHeF). Our observations set a strong upper limit for the …
Theoretical works have looked into the various topologies and amplitudes, as well as the stability of the magnetic field that is expected to be present in the radiative interior of stars evolving after the main sequence. Such internal magnetic fields have never been observed in evolved stars. As a result, there is a major piece missing from our global picture of stars as dynamical bodies. Asteroseismology opened a window onto stellar internal dynamics, as oscillation frequencies, amplitudes, and lifetimes are affected by processes that are taking place inside the star. In this scope, magnetic …
Core helium burning primary red clump (RC) stars are evolved red giant stars which are excellent standard candles. As such, these stars are routinely used to map the Milky Way or determine the distance to other galaxies among other things. However distinguishing RC stars from their less evolved precursors, namely red giant branch (RGB) stars, is still a difficult challenge and has been deemed the domain of asteroseismology. In this work, we use a sample of 1,676 RGB and RC stars which have both single epoch infrared spectra from the APOGEE survey and asteroseismic parameters and classification…
Our understanding of how the Galaxy was formed and evolves is severely hampered by the lack of precise constraints on basic stellar properties such as distances, masses, and ages. Here, we show that solar-like pulsating red giants represent a well-populated class of accurate distance indicators, spanning a large age range, which can be used to map and date the Galactic disc in the regions probed by observations made by the CoRoT and Kepler space telescopes. When combined with photometric constraints, the pulsation spectra of such evolved stars not only reveal their radii, and hence distances, …
