We combine results from interferometry, asteroseismology and spectroscopy to determine accurate fundamental parameters of 23 bright solar-type stars, from spectral type F5 to K2 and luminosity ...classes III–V. For some stars we can use direct techniques to determine the mass, radius, luminosity and effective temperature, and we compare with indirect methods that rely on photometric calibrations or spectroscopic analyses. We use the asteroseismic information available in the literature to infer an indirect mass with an accuracy of 4–15 per cent. From indirect methods we determine luminosity and radius to 3 per cent. We find evidence that the luminosity from the indirect method is slightly overestimated (≈ 5 per cent) for the coolest stars, indicating that their bolometric corrections (BCs) are too negative. For Teff we find a slight offset of −40 ± 20 K between the spectroscopic method and the direct method, meaning the spectroscopic temperatures are too high. From the spectroscopic analysis we determine the detailed chemical composition for 13 elements, including Li, C and O. The metallicity ranges from Fe/H=−1.7 to +0.4, and there is clear evidence for α-element enhancement in the metal-poor stars. We find no significant offset between the spectroscopic surface gravity and the value from combining asteroseismology with radius estimates. From the spectroscopy we also determine v sin i and we present a new calibration of macroturbulence and microturbulence. From the comparison between the results from the direct and spectroscopic methods we claim that we can determine Teff, log g and Fe/H with absolute accuracies of 80 K, 0.08 and 0.07 dex. Photometric calibrations of Strömgren indices provide accurate results for Teff and Fe/H but will be more uncertain for distant stars when interstellar reddening becomes important. The indirect methods are important to obtain reliable estimates of the fundamental parameters of relatively faint stars when interferometry cannot be used. This paper is the first to compare direct and indirect methods for a large sample of stars, and we conclude that indirect methods are valid, although slight corrections may be needed.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The number of main-sequence stars for which we can observe solar-like oscillations is expected to increase considerably with the short-cadence high-precision photometric observations from the NASA ...Kepler satellite. Because of this increase in the number of stars, automated tools are needed to analyse these data in a reasonable amount of time. In the framework of the asteroFLAG consortium, we present an automated pipeline which extracts frequencies and other parameters of solar-like oscillations in main-sequence and subgiant stars. The pipeline uses only the time series data as input and does not require any other input information. Tests on 353 artificial stars reveal that we can obtain accurate frequencies and oscillation parameters for about three quarters of the stars. We conclude that our methods are well suited for the analysis of main-sequence stars, which show mainly p-mode oscillations.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Context. Helioseismology has enabled us to better understand the solar interior, while also allowing us to better constrain solar models. But now is a tremendous epoch for asteroseismology as space ...missions dedicated to studying stellar oscillations have been launched within the last years (MOST and CoRoT). CoRoT has already proved valuable results for many types of stars, while Kepler, which was launched in March 2009, will provide us with a huge number of seismic data very soon. This is an opportunity to better constrain stellar models and to finally understand stellar structure and evolution. Aims. The goal of this research work is to estimate the global parameters of any solar-like oscillating target in an automatic manner. We want to determine the global parameters of the acoustic modes (large separation, range of excited pressure modes, maximum amplitude, and its corresponding frequency), retrieve the surface rotation period of the star and use these results to estimate the global parameters of the star (radius and mass). Methods. To prepare for the arrival and the analysis of hundreds of solar-like oscillating stars, we have developed a robust and automatic pipeline, which was partially adapted from helioseismic methods. The pipeline consists of data analysis techniques, such as Fast Fourier Transform, wavelets, autocorrelation, as well as the application of minimisation algorithms for stellar-modelling. Results. We apply our pipeline to some simulated lightcurves from the asteroFLAG team and the Aarhus-asteroFLAG simulator, and obtain results that are consistent with the input data to the simulations. Our strategy gives correct results for stars with magnitudes below 11 with only a few 10% of bad determinations among the reliable results. We then apply the pipeline to the Sun and three CoRoT targets. In particular we determine the large separation and radius of the Sun, HD49933, HD181906, and HD181420.
Full text
Available for:
FMFMET, NUK, UL, UM, UPUK
We present a detailed spectroscopic study of 93 solar-type stars that are targets of the NASA/Kepler mission and provide detailed chemical composition of each target. We find that the overall ...metallicity is well represented by Fe lines. Relative abundances of light elements (CNO) and α elements are generally higher for low-metallicity stars. Our spectroscopic analysis benefits from the accurately measured surface gravity from the asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler light curves. The accuracy on the log g parameter is better than 0.03 dex and is held fixed in the analysis. We compare our T
eff determination with a recent colour calibration of V
T−K
S TYCHO V magnitude minus Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) K
S magnitude and find very good agreement and a scatter of only 80 K, showing that for other nearby Kepler targets, this index can be used. The asteroseismic log g values agree very well with the classical determination using Fe i-Fe ii balance, although we find a small systematic offset of 0.08 dex (asteroseismic log g values are lower). The abundance patterns of metals, α elements and the light elements (CNO) show that a simple scaling by Fe/H is adequate to represent the metallicity of the stars, except for the stars with metallicity below −0.3, where α-enhancement becomes important. However, this is only important for a very small fraction of the Kepler sample. We therefore recommend that a simple scaling with Fe/H be employed in the asteroseismic analyses of large ensembles of solar-type stars.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
We present a sample of 77 optical afterglows (OAs) of Swift detected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) for which spectroscopic follow-up observations have been secured. Our first objective is to measure the ...redshifts of the bursts. For the majority (90%) of the afterglows, the redshifts have been determined from the spectra. We provide line lists and equivalent widths (EWs) for all detected lines redward of Ly Delta *a covered by the spectra. In addition to the GRB absorption systems, these lists include line strengths for a total of 33 intervening absorption systems. We discuss to what extent the current sample of Swift bursts with OA spectroscopy is a biased subsample of all Swift detected GRBs. For that purpose we define an X-ray-selected statistical sample of Swift bursts with optimal conditions for ground-based follow-up from the period 2005 March to 2008 September; 146 bursts fulfill our sample criteria. We derive the redshift distribution for the statistical (X-ray selected) sample and conclude that less than 18% of Swift bursts can be at z > 7. We compare the high-energy properties (e.g., Delta *g-ray (15-350 keV) fluence and duration, X-ray flux, and excess absorption) for three subsamples of bursts in the statistical sample: (1) bursts with redshifts measured from OA spectroscopy; (2) bursts with detected optical and/or near-IR afterglow, but no afterglow-based redshift; and (3) bursts with no detection of the OA. The bursts in group (1) have slightly higher Delta *g-ray fluences and higher X-ray fluxes and significantly less excess X-ray absorption than bursts in the other two groups. In addition, the fractions of dark bursts, defined as bursts with an optical to X-ray slope Delta *bOX < 0.5, is 14% in group (1), 38% in group (2), and >39% in group (3). For the full sample, the dark burst fraction is constrained to be in the range 25%-42%. From this we conclude that the sample of GRBs with OA spectroscopy is not representative for all Swift bursts, most likely due to a bias against the most dusty sight lines. This should be taken into account when determining, e.g., the redshift or metallicity distribution of GRBs and when using GRBs as a probe of star formation. Finally, we characterize GRB absorption systems as a class and compare them to QSO absorption systems, in particular the damped Ly Delta *a absorbers (DLAs). On average GRB absorbers are characterized by significantly stronger EWs for H I as well as for both low and high ionization metal lines than what is seen in intervening QSO absorbers. However, the distribution of line strengths is very broad and several GRB absorbers have lines with EWs well within the range spanned by QSO-DLAs. Based on the 33 z > 2 bursts in the sample, we place a 95% confidence upper limit of 7.5% on the mean escape fraction of ionizing photons from star-forming galaxies.
Aims. The determination of the location of the theoretical ZZ Ceti instability strip in the log g − Teff diagram has remained a challenge over the years due to the lack of a suitable treatment for ...convection in these stars. For the first time, a full nonadiabatic approach including time-dependent convection is applied to ZZ Ceti pulsators, and we provide the appropriate details related to the inner work- ings of the driving mechanism at work.
Methods. We used the nonadiabatic pulsation code MAD with a representative evolutionary sequence of a 0.6 M⊙ DA white dwarf. This sequence is made of state-of-the-art models that include a detailed modeling of the feedback of convection on the atmospheric structure. The assumed convective efficiency in these models is the so-called ML2/α = 1.0 version. We also carried out, for comparison purposes, nonadiabatic computations within the frozen convection approximation, as well as calculations based on models with standard grey atmospheres.
Results. We find that pulsational driving in ZZ Ceti stars is concentrated at the base of the superficial H convection zone, but at depths, near the blue edge of the instability strip, somewhat larger than those obtained with the frozen convection approach. Despite the fact that this approach is formally invalid in such stars, particularly near the blue edge of the instability strip, the predicted boundaries are not dramatically different in both cases. The revised blue edge for a 0.6 M⊙ model is found to be around Teff = 11,970 K, some 240 K hotter than the value predicted within the frozen convection approximation, in rather good agreement with the empirical value. On the other hand, our predicted red edge temperature for the same stellar mass is only about 5600 K (80 K hotter than with the frozen convection approach), much lower than the observed value.
Conclusions. We correctly understand the development of pulsational instabilities of a white dwarf as it cools at the blue edge of the ZZ Ceti instability strip. Our current implementation of time-dependent convection however still lacks important ingredients to fully account for the observed red edge of the strip. We will explore a number of possibilities in the future papers of this series.
Full text
Available for:
FMFMET, NUK, UL, UM, UPUK
Asteroseismology with the Kepler space telescope is providing not only an improved characterization of exoplanets and their host stars, but also a new window on stellar structure and evolution for ...the large sample of solar-type stars in the field. We perform a uniform analysis of 22 of the brightest asteroseismic targets with the highest signal-to-noise ratio observed for 1 month each during the first year of the mission, and we quantify the precision and relative accuracy of asteroseismic determinations of the stellar radius, mass, and age that are possible using various methods. We present the properties of each star in the sample derived from an automated analysis of the individual oscillation frequencies and other observational constraints using the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal (AMP), and we compare them to the results of model-grid-based methods that fit the global oscillation properties. We find that fitting the individual frequencies typically yields asteroseismic radii and masses to ~1% precision, and ages to ~2.5% precision (respectively, 2, 5, and 8 times better than fitting the global oscillation properties). The absolute level of agreement between the results from different approaches is also encouraging, with model-grid-based methods yielding slightly smaller estimates of the radius and mass and slightly older values for the stellar age relative to AMP, which computes a large number of dedicated models for each star. The sample of targets for which this type of analysis is possible will grow as longer data sets are obtained during the remainder of the mission.
We examine in detail the proposition that GW Vir pulsators owe their existence to a residual stellar wind that competes against the settling of the carbon and oxygen atoms which "fuel" pulsational ...instabilities via their opacity. With cooling, the fading wind progressively loses its capacity to maintain enough of these opaque atoms in the driving region, leading naturally to a red edge where pulsations disappear. We investigate, in particular, the effects of changing the mass-loss law and the initial envelope composition on the position of the red edge in the log g-T sub(eff) diagram. With this approach, we derive a coherent picture of the GW Vir instability domain.
We present the results of a detailed stability study of models of GW Vir pulsators. These are extremely hot, evolved, and compact stars that are on their way to the white dwarf cooling phase and that ...show multiperiodic luminosity variations due to gravity-mode pulsational instabilities. Our nonadiabatic survey confirms that cyclic ionization of carbon and oxygen is at the origin of the GW Vir phenomenon. We find that the extent of the instability domain in the log g - T unk plane is a strong function of the C and O content in the envelopes of these stars. Given that GW Vir stars show important variations in atmospheric composition from one object to another, this implies that the notion of a blue edge for the GW Vir instability domain is necessarily a "fuzzy" concept. We investigate the effects of varying the total mass, of adding hydrogen, and of changing the metallicity. We summarize our results in the form of extensive stability maps in the log g - unk diagram and produce tables and graphs showing the expected ranges of excited periods under various conditions.
PDF
