Context. In the context of the space missions CoRoT, Kepler, Gaia, TESS, and PLATO, precise and accurate stellar ages, masses, and radii are of paramount importance. For instance, they are crucial ...for constraining scenarii of planetary formation and evolution. Aims. We aim at quantifying how detailed stellar modelling can improve the accuracy and precision on age and mass of individual stars. To that end, we adopt a multifaceted approach where we carefully examine how the number of observational constraints as well as the uncertainties on observations and on model input physics affect the results of age-dating and weighing. Methods. We modelled in detail the exoplanet host-star HD 52265, a main-sequence, solar-like oscillator that CoRoT observed for four months. We considered different sets of observational constraints (Hertzsprung-Russell data, metallicity, various sets of seismic constraints). For each case, we determined the age, mass, and properties of HD 52265 inferred from stellar models, and we quantified the impact of the model input physics and free parameters. We also compared model ages with ages derived by empirical methods or Hertzsprung-Russell diagram inversion. Results. For our case study HD 52265, our seismic analysis provides an age A = 2.10−2.54 Gyr, a mass M = 1.14−1.32 M⊙, and a radius R = 1.30−1.34 R⊙, which corresponds to age, mass, and radius uncertainties of ~10, ~7, and ~1.5 per cent, respectively. These uncertainties account for observational errors and current state-of-the-art stellar model uncertainties. Our seismic study also provides constraints on surface convection properties through the mixing-length, which we find to be 12−15 per cent lower than the solar value. On the other hand, because of helium-mass degeneracy, the initial helium abundance is determined modulo the mass value. Finally, we evaluate the seismic mass of the exoplanet to be Mpsini = 1.17−1.26 MJupiter, much more precise than what can be derived by Hertzsprung-Russell diagram inversion. Conclusions. We demonstrate that asteroseismology allows us to substantially improve the age accuracy that can be achieved with other methods. We emphasize that the knowledge of the mean properties of stellar oscillations – such as the large frequency separation – is not enough to derive accurate ages. We need precise individual frequencies to narrow the age scatter that is a result of the model input physics uncertainties. Further progress is required to better constrain the physics at work in stars and the stars helium content. Our results emphasize the importance of precise classical stellar parameters and oscillation frequencies such as will be obtained by the Gaia and PLATO missions.
The high quality of the asteroseismic data provided by space missions such as CoRoT (Michel et al. in The CoRoT Mission, ESA Spec. Publ. vol.1306, p.39, 2006) or expected from new operating missions ...such as Kepler (Christensen-Dalsgaard et al. in Commun. Asteroseismol. 150:350, 2007) requires the capacity of stellar evolution codes to provide accurate models whose numerical precision is better than the expected observational errors (i.e. below 0.1kHz on the frequencies in the case of CoRoT). We present a review of some thorough comparisons of stellar models produced by different evolution codes, involved in the CoRoT/ESTA activities (Monteiro in Evolution and Seismic Tools for Stellar Astrophysics, 2009). We examine the numerical aspects of the computations as well as the effects of different implementations of the same physics on the global quantities, physical structure and oscillations properties of the stellar models. We also discuss a few aspects of the input physics.
In anticipation of the Gaia astrometric mission, a large sample of spectroscopic binaries has been observed since 2010 with the Sophie spectrograph at the Haute–Provence Observatory. Our aim is to ...derive the orbital elements of double-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s) with an accuracy sufficient finally to obtain the masses of the components with relative errors as small as 1 per cent when the astrometric measurements of Gaia are taken into account. Simultaneously, the luminosities of the components in the Gaia photometric band G will also be obtained. Our observation program started with 200 SBs, including 152 systems that were only known as single-lined. Thanks to the high efficiency of the Sophie spectrograph, an additional component was found for 25 SBs. After rejection of five multiple systems, 20 new SB2s were retained, including eight binaries with an evolved primary, and their mass ratios were derived. Our final sample contains 68 SB2s, including two late-type giants and 10 other evolved stars.
Context. A 5-night asteroseismic observation of the F8V star HD 203608 was conducted in August 2006 with harps, followed by an analysis of the data, and a preliminary modeling of the star (Mosser ...et al. 2008). The stellar parameters were significantly constrained, but the behavior of one of the seismic indexes (the small spacing $\delta\nu_{01}$) could not be fitted with the observed one, even with the best considered models. Aims. We study the possibility of improving the agreement between models and observations by changing the physical properties of the inner parts of the star (to which $\delta\nu_{01}$ is sensitive). Methods. We show that, in spite of its low mass, it is possible to produce models of HD 203608 with a convective core. No such model was considered in the preliminary modeling. In practice, we obtain these models here by assuming some extra mixing at the edge of the early convective core. We optimized the model parameters using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. Results. The agreement between the new best model with a convective core and the observations is much better than for the models without. All the observational parameters are fitted within 1-σ observational error bars. This is the first observational evidence of a convective core in an old and low-mass star such as HD 203608. In standard models of low-mass stars, the core withdraws shortly after the ZAMS. The survival of the core until the present age of HD 203608 provides very strong constraints on the size of the mixed zone associated to the convective core. Using overshooting as a proxy to model the processes of transport at the edge of the core, we find that to reproduce both global and seismic observations, we must have $\alpha_{{ov}}$ = 0.17 ± 0.03 Hp for HD 203608. We revisit the process of the extension of the core lifetime due to overshooting in the particular case of HD 203608.
Among the various methods used to age-date stars, methods based on stellar model predictions are widely used, for nearly all kind of stars in large ranges of masses, chemical compositions and ...evolutionary stages. The precision and accuracy on the age determination depend on both the precision and number of observational constraints, and on our ability to correctly describe the stellar interior and evolution. The imperfect input physics of stellar models as well as the uncertainties on the initial chemical composition of stars are responsible for uncertainties in the age determination. We present an overview of the calculation of stellar models and discuss the impact on age of their numerous inputs.
Accurate and precise stellar ages are best determined for stars which are strongly observationally constrained, that is which are intrinsically oscillating. We review here the seismic diagnostics ...which are sensitive to stellar ages and provide some illustrating examples of seismically age-dated stars.
Thanks to their past history on the main-sequence phase, supergiant massive stars develop a convective shell around the helium core. This intermediate convective zone (ICZ) plays an essential role in ...governing which g-modes are excited. Indeed, a strong radiative damping occurs in the high-density radiative core but the ICZ acts as a barrier preventing the propagation of some g-modes into the core. These g-modes can thus be excited in supergiant stars by the κ-mechanism in the superficial layers due to the opacity bump of iron, at log T= 5.2. However, massive stars are submitted to various complex phenomena such as rotation, magnetic fields, semiconvection, mass loss, overshooting. Each of these phenomena exerts a significant effect on the evolution and some of them could prevent the onset of the convective zone. We develop a numerical method which allows us to select the reflected, thus the potentially excited, modes only. We study different cases in order to show that mass loss and overshooting, in a large enough amount, reduce the extent of the ICZ and are unfavourable to the excitation of g-modes.
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