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B. Mosser

Publications and source records attributed to B. Mosser.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Extra modes in helium-core-burning stars probing an infra core cavity

Dipole mixed modes observed in the oscillation pattern of red giant stars probe the radiative regions in the stellar core. Oscillation spectra of helium-core-burning stars sometimes show extra peaks that remain unexplained by the dipole mixed-mode pattern expected from the coupling of a radiative cavity in the stellar core and a pressure cavity in the stellar envelope. We use the asymptotic expansion developed for a multi-cavity star in order to characterize these extra peaks. The analytical resonance condition of the multi-cavity gravito-acoustic modes, with two inner gravity cavities and an outer pressure cavity, helps us explain that the apparent extra peaks are dipole mixed modes that follow the 3-cavity oscillation pattern. The derivation of the two asymptotic period spacings associated with the two distinct regions in the radiative core provides an estimate of the full radiative cavity. Our results provide new constraints for analysing the overshoot or mixing in the core of helium-core-burning stars. An important structure discontinuity inside the radiative core may explain the larger than expected observed period spacings.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2025

Physical interpretation of the oscillation spectrum on the RGB and AGB

The high-frequency resolution of the four-year $\textit{Kepler}$ time series allows detailed study of seismic modes in luminous giants. Seismic observables help infer interior structures via comparisons with stellar models. We aim to investigate differences between H-shell (Red-Giant Branch; RGB) and He-burning (red clump and Asymptotic-Giant Branch; AGB) stars in the He-II ionisation zone and the sensitivity of seismic parameters to input physics in stellar models. We used a grid of stellar models with masses $0.8-2.5M_\odot$ and metallicities $-1.0-0.25$dex, including mass loss, overshooting, thermohaline mixing, and rotation-induced mixing. P-mode frequencies were inferred by suppressing g-modes in the core. The main factors affecting seismic observables are stellar mass and metallicity. The He-II glitch amplitude in the local large frequency separation $\Delta\nu$ correlates with the He-II ionisation zone density, explaining observed differences between RGB and clump/AGB stars. That amplitude exceeds 10% of $\Delta\nu$ in high-luminosity giants, making the asymptotic expansion less accurate when $\Delta\nu \le 0.5\,\mu$Hz. Mass loss on the RGB and rotation-induced mixing from the main sequence to the early-AGB produce phase differences in the He-II glitch modulation signature between RGB and clump/AGB stars. Efficient RGB mass loss (for $M \le 1.5\,M_\odot$) and mixing processes (for $M \ge 1.5\,M_\odot$) leave detectable signatures in p-mode frequencies, enabling classification of red giants.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2025

Advancing accuracy in age determinations of old-disk stars using an oscillating red giant in an eclipsing binary

The study of resonant oscillation modes in low-mass red giant branch stars enables their ages to be inferred with exceptional ($\sim$10%) precision, unlocking the possibility to reconstruct the temporal evolution of the Milky Way at early cosmic times. Ensuring the accuracy of such a precise age scale is a fundamental yet difficult challenge. Since the age of red giant branch stars primarily hinges on their mass, an independent mass determination for an oscillating red giant star provides the means for such assessment. We analyze the old eclipsing binary KIC10001167, which hosts an oscillating red giant branch star and is a member of the thick disk of the Milky Way. Of the known red giants in eclipsing binaries, this is the only member of the thick disk that has asteroseismic signal of high enough quality to test the seismic mass inference at the 2% level. We measure the binary orbit and obtain fundamental stellar parameters through combined analysis of light curve eclipses and radial velocities, and perform a detailed asteroseismic, photospheric, and Galactic kinematic characterization of the red giant and binary system. We show that the dynamically determined mass $0.9337\pm0.0077 \rm\ M_{\odot}$ (0.8%) of this 10 Gyr-old star agrees within 1.4% with the mass inferred from detailed modelling of individual pulsation mode frequencies (1.6%). This is now the only thick disk stellar system, hosting a red giant, where the mass has been determined both asteroseismically with better than 2% precision, and through a model-independent method at 1% precision, and we hereby affirm the potential of asteroseismology to define an accurate age scale for ancient stars to trace the Milky Way assembly history.

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arXiv2024

Red giants evolutionary status determination: the complete Kepler catalog

Evolved cool stars have three distinct evolutionary status: shell Hydrogen-burning (RGB), core Helium and shell Hydrogen burning (RC), and double shell burning (AGB). Asteroseismology can distinguish between the RC and the other status, but distinguishing RGB and AGB has been difficult seismically and spectroscopically. The precise boundaries of different status in the HR diagram have also been difficult to establish. In this article, we present a comprehensive catalog of asteroseismic evolutionary status, RGB and RC, for evolved red giants in the Kepler field. We carefully examine boundary cases to define the lower edge of the RC phase in radius and surface gravity. We also test different published asteroseisemic methods claiming to distinguish AGB and RGB stars against a sample where AGB candidates were selected using a spectrocopic identification method. We used six different seismic techniques to distinguish RC and RGB stars, and tested two proposed methods for distinguishing AGB and RGB stars. These status were compared with those inferred from spectroscopy. We present consensus evolutionary status for 18,784 stars out of the 30,337 red giants present in the Kepler data, including 11,516 stars with APOGEE spectra available. The agreement between seismic and spectroscopic classification is excellent for distinguishing RC stars, agreeing at the 94% level. Most disagreements can be traced to uncertainties in spectroscopic parameters, but some are caused by blends with background stars. We find a sharp lower boundary in surface gravity at log(g) = 2.99+/-0.01 for the RC and discuss the implications. We demonstrate that asteroseismic tools for distinguishing AGB and RGB stars are consistent with spectroscopic evolutionary status at near the RC but that the agreement between the different methods decreases rapidly as the star evolves.

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arXiv2024

Predicted asteroseismic detection yield for solar-like oscillating stars with PLATO

We determine the expected yield of detections of solar-like oscillations for the PLATO ESA mission. We used a formulation from the literature to calculate the probability of detection and validated it with Kepler data. We then applied this approach to the PLATO P1 and P2 samples with the lowest noise level and the much larger P5 sample, which has a higher noise level. We used the information available in in the PIC 1.1.0, including the current best estimate of the signal-to-noise ratio. We also derived relations to estimate the uncertainties of seismically inferred stellar mass, radius and age and applied those relations to the main sequence stars of the PLATO P1 and P2 samples with masses equal to or below 1.2 $\rm{M}_\odot$ for which we had obtained a positive seismic detection. We found that one can expect positive detections of solar-like oscillations for more than 15 000 FGK stars in one single field after a two-years run of observation. For main sequence stars with masses $\leq 1.2 \rm{M}_\odot$, we found that about 1131 stars satisfy the PLATO requirements for the uncertainties of the seismically inferred stellar masses, radii and ages in one single field after a two-year run of observation. The baseline observation programme of PLATO consists in observing two fields of similar size (in the Southern and Northern hemispheres) for two years each. The expected seismic yields of the mission are more 30000 FGK dwarfs and subgiants with positive detections of solar-like oscillations, enabling to achieve the mission stellar objectives. The PLATO mission should produce a sample of seismically extremely well characterized stars of quality equivalent to the Kepler Legacy sample but containing a number of stars $\sim$ 80 times larger if observing two PLATO fields for two years each. They will represent a goldmine which will make possible significant advances in stellar modelling.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2024

Locked differential rotation in core-helium burning red giants

Oscillation modes of a mixed character are able to probe the inner region of evolved low-mass stars and offer access to a range of information, in particular, the mean core rotation. Ensemble asteroseismology observations are then able to provide clear views on the transfer of angular momentum when stars evolve as red giants. Previous catalogs of core rotation rates in evolved low-mass stars have focussed on hydrogen-shell burning stars. Our aim is to complete the compilation of rotation measurements toward more evolved stages, with a detailed analysis of the mean core rotation in core-helium burning giants. The asymptotic expansion for dipole mixed modes allows us to fit oscillation spectra of red clump stars and derive their core rotation rates. We used a range of prior seismic analyses, complete with new data, to get statistically significant results. We measured the mean core rotation rates for more than 1500 red clump stars. We find that the evolution of the core rotation rate in core-helium-burning stars scales with the inverse square of the stellar radius, with a small dependence on mass. Assuming the conservation of the global angular momentum, a simple model allows us to infer that the mean core rotation and envelope rotation are necessarily coupled. The coupling mechanism ensures that the differential rotation in core-helium-burning red giants is locked.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2023

Seismic and spectroscopic analysis of 9 bright red giants observed by Kepler

Photometric time series gathered by space telescopes such as CoRoT and Kepler allow to detect solar-like oscillations in red-giant stars and to measure their global seismic constraints, which can be used to infer global stellar properties (e.g. masses, radii, evolutionary states). Combining such precise constraints with photospheric abundances provides a means of testing mixing processes that occur inside red-giant stars. In this work, we conduct a detailed spectroscopic and seismic analysis of nine nearby (d < 200 pc) red-giant stars observed by Kepler. Both seismic constraints and grid-based modelling approaches are used to determine precise fundamental parameters for those evolved stars. We compare distances and radii derived from Gaia Data Release 3 parallaxes with those inferred by a combination of seismic, spectroscopic and photometric constraints. We find no deviations within errorsbars, however the small sample size and the associated uncertainties are a limiting factor for such comparison. We use the period spacing of mixed modes to distinguish between ascending red-giants and red-clump stars. Based on the evolutionary status, we apply corrections to the values of $\Delta\nu$ for some stars, resulting in a slight improvement to the agreement between seismic and photometric distances. Finally, we couple constraints on detailed chemical abundances with the inferred masses, radii and evolutionary states. Our results corroborate previous studies that show that observed abundances of lithium and carbon isotopic ratio are in contrast with predictions from standard models, giving robust evidence for the occurrence of additional mixing during the red-giant phase.

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arXiv2023

K2 results for "young" $\alpha$-rich stars in the Galaxy

The origin of apparently young $\alpha$-rich stars in the Galaxy is still a matter of debate in Galactic archaeology, whether they are genuinely young or might be products of binary evolution and merger/mass accretion. We aim to shed light on the nature of young $\alpha$-rich stars in the Milky Way by studying their distribution in the Galaxy thanks to an unprecedented sample of giant stars that cover different Galactic regions and have precise asteroseismic ages, chemical, and kinematic measurements. We analyze a new sample of $\sim$ 6000 stars with precise ages coming from asteroseismology. Our sample combines the global asteroseismic parameters measured from light curves obtained by the K2 mission with stellar parameters and chemical abundances obtained from APOGEE DR17 and GALAH DR3, then cross-matched with Gaia DR3. We define our sample of young $\alpha$-rich stars and study their chemical, kinematic, and age properties. We investigate young $\alpha$-rich stars in different parts of the Galaxy and we find that the fraction of young $\alpha$-rich stars remains constant with respect to the number of high-$\alpha$ stars at $\sim$ 10%. Furthermore, young $\alpha$-rich stars have kinematic and chemical properties similar to high-$\alpha$ stars, except for [C/N] ratios. This suggests that these stars are not genuinely young, but products of binary evolution and merger/mass accretion. Under that assumption, we find the fraction of these stars in the field to be similar to that found recently in clusters. This fact suggests that $\sim$ 10% of the low-$\alpha$ field stars could also have their ages underestimated by asteroseismology. This should be kept in mind when using asteroseismic ages to interpret results in Galactic archaeology.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

Time evolution of Ce as traced by APOGEE using giant stars observed with the Kepler, TESS and K2 missions

Abundances of s-capture process elements in stars with exquisite asteroseismic, spectroscopic, and astrometric constraints offer a novel opportunity to study stellar evolution, nucleosynthesis, and Galactic chemical evolution. We aim to investigate one of the least studied s-process elements in the literature, Ce, using stars with asteroseismic constraints from the Kepler, K2 and TESS missions. We combine the global asteroseismic parameters derived from precise light curves obtained by the Kepler, K2 and TESS missions with chemical abundances from the APOGEE DR17 survey and astrometric data from the Gaia mission. Finally, we compute stellar ages using the code PARAM. We investigate the different trends of [Ce/Fe] as a function of [Fe/H], [alpha/Fe] and age considering the dependence on the radial position, specially in the case of K2 targets which cover a large Galactocentric range. We, finally, explore the [Ce/alpha] ratios as a function of age in different Galactocentric intervals. The studied trends display a strong dependence of the Ce abundances on [Fe/H] and star formation history. Indeed, the [Ce/Fe] ratio shows a non-monotonic dependence on [Fe/H] with a peak around -0.2 dex. Moreover, younger stars have higher [Ce/Fe] and [Ce/alpha] ratios than older stars, confirming the latest contribution of low- and intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch stars to the Galactic chemical enrichment. In addition, the trends of [Ce/Fe] and [Ce/alpha] with age become steeper moving towards the outer regions of the Galactic disc, demonstrating a more intense star formation in the inner regions than in the outer regions. Ce is thus a potentially interesting element to help constraining stellar yields and the inside-out formation of the Milky Way disc. However, the large scatter in all the relations studied here, suggests that spectroscopic uncertainties for this element are still too large.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

Gender and Precarity in Astronomy

Following the survey Well-being in astrophysics that was sent out in March 2021, to establish how astrophysics researchers, primarily in France, experience their career, some of the results were published in Webb et al. (2021). Here we further analyse the data to determine if gender can cause different experiences in astrophysics. We also study the impact on the well-being of temporary staff (primarily PhD students and postdocs), compared to permanent staff. Whilst more temporary staff stated that they felt permanently overwhelmed than permanent staff, the experiences in astrophysics for the different genders were in general very similar, except in one area. More than three times more females than males experienced harassment or discrimination, rising sharply for gender discrimination and sexual harassment, where all of those having experienced sexual harassment and who had provided their gender in the survey, were female. Further, as previously reported (Webb et al. 2021), 20% of the respondents had suffered mental health issues before starting their career in astrophysics. We found that whilst this group was split approximately equally with regards to males and females, the number rose sharply to almost 45% of astronomers experiencing mental health issues since starting in astrophysics. Of this population, there were 50% more females than males. This excess of females was almost entirely made up of the population of women that had been harassed or discriminated against.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2023

Asteroseismology of evolved stars to constrain the internal transport of angular momentum. VI. Testing a parametric formulation for the azimuthal magneto-rotational instability

Asteroseismic measurements of the internal rotation rate in evolved stars pointed out to a lack of angular momentum (AM) transport in stellar evolution models. Several physical processes in addition to hydrodynamical ones were proposed as candidates for the missing mechanism. Nonetheless, no current candidate can satisfy all the constraints provided by asteroseismology. We revisit the role of a candidate process whose efficiency scales with the contrast between the rotation rate of the core and the surface which was proposed to be related to the azimuthal magneto-rotational instability (AMRI) by Spada et al. We compute stellar evolution models of low- and intermediate-mass stars with the parametric formulation of AM transport proposed by Spada et al. until the end of the core-helium burning for low- and intermediate-mass stars and compare our results to the latest asteroseismic constraints available in the post main sequence phase. Both hydrogen-shell burning stars in the red giant branch and core-helium burning stars of low- and intermediate-mass in the mass range $1 M_{\odot} \lesssim M \lesssim 2.5 M_{\odot}$ can be simultaneously reproduced by this kind of parametrisation. Given current constraints from asteroseismology, the core rotation rate of post-main sequence stars seems to be well explained by a process whose efficiency is regulated by the internal degree of differential rotation in radiative zones.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2022

KIC 7955301: a hierarchical triple system with eclipse timing variations and an oscillating red giant

KIC 7955301 is a hierarchical triple system with eclipse timing and depth variations discovered by the Kepler mission. It is composed of a non-eclipsing primary star at the bottom of the red giant branch on a 209-day orbit with a K/G-type main-sequence inner eclipsing binary, orbiting in 15.3 days. This system was noted for the large amplitude of its eclipse timing variations (4 hours), and the clear solar-like oscillations of the red-giant component, including p-modes of degree up to l=3 and mixed l=1 modes. The system is a single-lined spectroscopic triple. We perform a dynamical model by combining the Kepler photometric data, eclipse timing variations, and radial-velocity data obtained at Apache Point (ARCES) and Haute Provence (SOPHIE) observatories. The dynamical mass of the red-giant is determined with a 2% precision at 1.30 (+0.03,-0.02) solar mass. We perform asteroseismic modeling based on the global seismic parameters and on the individual frequencies. Both methods lead to a mass of the red giant that matches the dynamical mass within the uncertainties. Asteroseismology also reveals the rotation rate of the core (15 days), the envelope (150 days), and the inclination (75 deg) of the red giant. Three different approaches lead to an age between 3.3 and 5.8 Gyr, which highlights the difficulty of determining stellar ages despite the exceptional wealth of available information. On short timescales, the inner binary exhibits eclipses with varying depths during a 7.3-year long interval, and no eclipses during the consecutive 11.9 years. This is why Kepler could detect its eclipses, TESS will not, and the future ESA PLATO mission should. Over the long term, the system owes its evolution to the evolution of its individual components. It could end its current smooth evolution by merging by the end of the red giant or the asymptotic giant branch of the primary star.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2022

Characterising the AGB bump and its potential to constrain mixing processes in stellar interiors

In the 90's, theoretical studies motivated the use of the asymptotic-giant branch bump (AGBb) as a standard candle given the weak dependence between its luminosity and stellar metallicity. Because of the small size of observed asymptotic-giant branch (AGB) samples, detecting the AGBb is not an easy task. However, this is now possible thanks to the wealth of data collected by the CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS space-borne missions. It is well-know that the AGB bump provides valuable information on the internal structure of low-mass stars, particularly on mixing processes such as core overshooting during the core He-burning phase. In this context, we analysed ~ 4,000 evolved giants observed by Kepler and TESS, including red-giant branch stars and AGB stars, for which asteroseismic and spectrometric data are available. By using statistical mixture models, we detected the AGBb both in frequency at maximum oscillation power and in effective temperature. Then, we used the Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics MESA stellar evolution code to model AGB stars and match the AGBb occurrence with observations. From observations, we could derive the AGBb location in 15 bins of mass and metallicity. We noted that the higher the mass, the later the AGBb occurs in the evolutionary track, which agrees with theoretical works. Moreover, we found a slight increase of the luminosity at the AGBb when the metallicity increases, which complicates the use of the AGBb as a standard candle. By fitting those observations with stellar models, we noticed that low-mass stars (M < 1.0 $M_{\odot}$) require a small core overshooting region during the core He-burning phase. This core overshooting extent increases toward high mass, but above M > 1.5 $M_{\odot}$ we found that the AGBb location cannot be reproduced with a realistic He-core overshooting alone, and instead additional mixing processes have to be invoked.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2022

Asteroseismology of evolved stars to constrain the internal transport of angular momentum. V. Efficiency of the transport on the red giant branch and in the red clump

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 of a sole dominant diffusive process parametrized by an additional viscosity. We constrain the values of this viscosity to match the mean core rotation rates of red giants and their behaviour with mass and evolution along the red giant branch and in the red clump. For red giants in the hydrogen shell-burning phase the transport of angular momentum must be more efficient in more massive stars. The additional viscosity is found to vary by approximately two orders of magnitude in the mass range M $\sim$ 1 - 2.5 M$_{\odot}$. As stars evolve along the red giant branch, the efficiency of the internal transport of angular momentum must increase for low-mass stars (M $\lesssim$ 2 M$_{\odot}$) and remain approximately constant for slightly higher masses (2.0 M$_{\odot}$ $\lesssim$ M $\lesssim$ 2.5 M$_{\odot}$). In red-clump stars, the additional viscosities must be an order of magnitude higher than in younger red giants of similar mass during the hydrogen shell-burning phase. In combination with previous efforts, we obtain a clear picture of how the physical processes acting in stellar interiors should redistribute angular momentum from the end of the main sequence until the core-helium burning phase for low- and intermediate-mass stars to satisfy the asteroseismic constraints.

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arXiv2021

Detections of solar-like oscillations in dwarfs and subgiants with Kepler DR25 short-cadence data

During the survey phase of the Kepler mission, several thousands of stars were observed in short cadence, allowing the detection of solar-like oscillations in more than 500 main-sequence and sub-giant stars. Later, the Kepler Science Office discovered an issue in the calibration that affected half of the short-cadence data, leading to a new data release (DR25) with improved corrections. We re-analyze the one-month time series of the Kepler survey phase to search for new solar-like oscillations. We study the seismic parameters of 99 stars (46 targets with new reported solar-like oscillations) increasing by around 8% the known sample of solar-like stars with asteroseismic analysis of the short-cadence data from Kepler. We compute the masses and radii using seismic scaling relations and find that this new sample populates the massive stars (above 1.2Ms and up to 2Ms) and subgiant phase. We determine the granulation parameters and amplitude of the modes, which agree with previously derived scaling relations. The stars studied here are slightly fainter than the previously known sample of main-sequence and subgiants with asteroseismic detections. We also study the surface rotation and magnetic activity levels of those stars. Our sample of has similar levels of activity compared to the previously known sample and in the same range as the Sun between the minimum and maximum of its activity cycle. We find that for 7 stars, a possible blend could be the reason for the previous non detection. We compare the radii obtained from the scaling relations with the Gaia ones and find that the Gaia radii are overestimated by 4.4% on average compared to the seismic radii and a decreasing trend with evolutionary stage. We re-analyze the DR25 of the main-sequence and sub-giant stars with solar-like oscillations previously detected and provide their global seismic parameters for a total of 526 stars.

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arXiv2021

Seismic signature of electron degeneracy in the core of red giants: hints for mass transfer between close red-giant companions

The detection of mixed modes in red giants with space missions CoRoT and Kepler has revealed their deep internal structure. These modes allow us to characterize the pattern of pressure modes (through the measurement of their asymptotic frequency separation $\Delta\nu$) and the pattern of gravity modes (through the determination of their asymptotic period spacing $\Delta\Pi_1$). It has been shown that red giant branch (RGB) stars regroup on a well-defined sequence in the $\Delta\nu$-$\Delta\Pi_1$ plane. Our first goal is to theoretically explain the features of this sequence and understand how it can be used to probe the interiors of red giants. Using a grid of red giant models computed with MESA, we demonstrate that red giants join the $\Delta\nu$-$\Delta\Pi_1$ sequence whenever electron degeneracy becomes strong in the core. We argue that this can be used to estimate the central densities of these stars, and potentially to measure the amount of core overshooting during the main sequence part of the evolution. We also investigate a puzzling subsample of red giants that are located below the RGB sequence, in contradiction with stellar evolution models. After checking the measurements of the asymptotic period spacing for these stars, we show that they are mainly intermediate-mass red giants. This is doubly peculiar because these stars should have nondegenerate cores and are expected to be located well above the RGB sequence. We show that these peculiarities are well accounted for if these stars result from the interaction between two low-mass ($M\lesssim2\,M_\odot$) close companions during the red giant branch phase. If the secondary component has already developed a degenerate core before mass transfer begins, it becomes an intermediate-mass giant with a degenerate core. The secondary star is then located below the degenerate sequence, in agreement with the observations.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2021

Seismic constraints on the internal structure of evolved stars: From high-luminosity RGB to AGB stars

The space-borne missions CoRoT and Kepler opened up a new opportunity for better understanding stellar evolution by probing stellar interiors with unrivalled high-precision photometric data. Kepler has observed stellar oscillation for four years, which gave access to excellent frequency resolution that enables deciphering the oscillation spectrum of evolved red giant branch and asymptotic giant branch stars. The internal structure of stars in the upper parts of the red and asymptotic giant branches is poorly constrained, which makes the distinction between red and asymptotic giants difficult. We perform a thorough seismic analysis to address the physical conditions inside these stars and to distinguish them. We studied the oscillation mode properties of about 2.000 evolved giants in a model described by the asymptotic pressure-mode pattern of red giants, which includes the signature of the helium second-ionisation zone. We extracted the mode properties up to the degree l = 3 and investigated their dependence on stellar mass, metallicity, and evolutionary status. We identify a clear difference in the signature of the helium second-ionisation zone between red and asymptotic giants. We also detect a clear shortage of the energy of l = 1 modes after the core-He-burning phase. Furthermore, we note that the mode damping observed on the asymptotic giant branch is similar to that observed on the red giant branch. We highlight that the signature of the helium second-ionisation zone varies with stellar evolution. This provides us with a physical basis for distinguishing red giant branch stars from asymptotic giants. Here, our investigation of stellar oscillations allows us to constrain the physical processes and the key events that occur during the advanced stages of stellar evolution, with emphasis on the ascent along the asymptotic giant branch, including the asymptotic giant branch bump.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2020

PBjam: A Python package for automating asteroseismology of solar-like oscillators

Asteroseismology is an exceptional tool for studying stars by using the properties of observed modes of oscillation. So far the process of performing an asteroseismic analysis of a star has remained somewhat esoteric and inaccessible to non-experts. In this software paper we describe PBjam, an open-source Python package for analyzing the frequency spectra of solar-like oscillators in a simple but principled and automated way. The aim of PBjam is to provide a set of easy-to-use tools to extract information about the radial and quadrupole oscillations in stars that oscillate like the Sun, which may then be used to infer bulk properties such as stellar mass, radius and age or even structure. Asteroseismology and its data analysis methods are becoming increasingly important as space-based photometric observatories are producing a wealth of new data, allowing asteroseismology to be applied in a wide range of contexts such as exoplanet, stellar structure and evolution, and Galactic population studies.

astro-ph.SR↗