ASTEROSEISMIC CLASSIFICATION OF STELLAR POPULATIONS AMONG 13,000 RED GIANTS OBSERVED BY KEPLER
- Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia)
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States)
- Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom)
- Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
- LESIA, CNRS, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Universite Denis Diderot, Observatoire de Paris, F-92195 Meudon (France)
Of the more than 150,000 targets followed by the Kepler Mission, about 10% were selected as red giants. Due to their high scientific value, in particular for Galaxy population studies and stellar structure and evolution, their Kepler light curves were made public in late 2011. More than 13,000 (over 85%) of these stars show intrinsic flux variability caused by solar-like oscillations making them ideal for large-scale asteroseismic investigations. We automatically extracted individual frequencies and measured the period spacings of the dipole modes in nearly every red giant. These measurements naturally classify the stars into various populations, such as the red giant branch, the low-mass (M/M{sub Sun} {approx}< 1.8) helium-core-burning red clump, and the higher-mass (M/M{sub Sun} {approx}> 1.8) secondary clump. The period spacings also reveal that a large fraction of the stars show rotationally induced frequency splittings. This sample of stars will undoubtedly provide an extremely valuable source for studying the stellar population in the direction of the Kepler field, in particular when combined with complementary spectroscopic surveys.
- OSTI ID:
- 22130824
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 765; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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