Site Map
Contacts
Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter YouTube channel
Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto

Fundamental properties of five Kepler stars using global asteroseismic quantities and ground-based observations

O. L. Creevey, G. Doǧan, A. Frasca, A. O. Thygesen, S. Basu, J. Bhattacharya, K. Biazzo, I. M. Brandão, H. Bruntt, A. Mazumdar, E. Niemczura, T. Shrotriya, S. G. Sousa, D. Stello, A. Subramaniam, T. L. Campante, R. Handberg, S. Mathur, T. R. Bedding, R. A. García, C. Régulo, D. Salabert, J. Molenda-Żakowicz, P.-O. Quirion, T. R. White, A. Bonanno, W. J. Chaplin, K. Kinemuchi, H. Kjeldsen, N. Gai, M. J. P. F. G. Monteiro, J.-C. Suárez

Abstract
We present an asteroseismic study of the solar-like stars KIC 11395018, KIC 10273246, KIC 10920273, KIC 10339342, and KIC 11234888 using short-cadence time series of more than eight months from the Kepler satellite. For four of these stars, we derive atmospheric parameters from spectra acquired with the Nordic Optical Telescope. The global seismic quantities (average large frequency separation and frequency of maximum power), combined with the atmospheric parameters, yield the mean density and surface gravity with precisions of 2% and ~0.03 dex, respectively. We also determine the radius, mass, and age with precisions of 2–5%, 7–11%, and ~35%, respectively, using grid-based analyses. Coupling the stellar parameters with photometric data yields an asteroseismic distance with a precision better than 10%. A ν sin i measurement provides a rotational period-inclination correlation, and using the rotational periods from the recent literature, we constrain the stellar inclination for three of the stars. An Li abundance analysis yields an independent estimate of the age, but this is inconsistent with the asteroseismically determined age for one of the stars. We assess the performance of five grid-based analysis methods and find them all to provide consistent values of the surface gravity to ~0.03 dex when both atmospheric and seismic constraints are at hand. The different grid-based analyses all yield fitted values of radius and mass to within 2.4σ, and taking the mean of these results reduces it to 1.5σ. The absence of a metallicity constraint when the average large frequency separation is measured with a precision of 1% biases the fitted radius and mass for the stars with non-solar metallicity (metal-rich KIC 11395018 and metal-poor KIC 10273246), while including a metallicity constraint reduces the uncertainties in both of these parameters by almost a factor of two. We found that including the average small frequency separation improves the determination of the age only for KIC 11395018 and KIC 11234888, and for the latter this improvement was due to the lack of strong atmospheric constraints.

Keywords
stars: oscillations – stars: fundamental parameters – stars: atmospheres – asteroseismology – stars: solar-type – stars: general

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Volume 537, Page A111_1
January 2012

>> ADS>> DOI

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

Proceed on CAUP's website|Go to IA website