arXiv subjects

M. H. Pinsonneault

Publications and source records attributed to M. H. Pinsonneault.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Beyond the Nyquist frequency: Asteroseismic catalog of undersampled Kepler late subgiants and early red giants

Subgiants and early red giants are crucial for studying the first dredge-up, a key evolutionary phase where the convective envelope deepens, mixing previously interior-processed material and bringing it to the surface. Yet, very few have been seismically characterized with Kepler because their oscillation frequencies are close to the 30 minute sampling frequency of the mission. We developed a new method as part of the new PyA2Z code to identify super-Nyquist oscillators and infer their global seismic parameters, $ν_\mathrm{max}$ and large separation, $Δν$. Applying PyA2Z to 2 065 Kepler targets, we seismically characterize 285 super-Nyquist and 168 close-to-Nyquist stars with masses from 0.8 to 1.6 M$_\odot$. In combination with APOGEE spectroscopy, Gaia spectro-photometry, and stellar models, we derive stellar ages for the sample. There is good agreement between the predicted and actual positions of stars on the HR diagram (luminosity vs. effective temperature) as a function of mass and composition. While the timing of dredge-up is consistent with predictions, the magnitude and mass dependence show discrepancies with models, possibly due to uncertainties in model physics or calibration issues in observed abundance scales.

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arXiv2025

Kepler meets Gaia DR3: homogeneous extinction-corrected color-magnitude diagram and binary classification

The original Kepler mission has delivered unprecedented high-quality photometry. These data have impacted numerous research fields (e.g., asteroseismology and exoplanets), and continue to be an astrophysical goldmine. Because of this, thorough investigations of the ~ 200,000 stars observed by Kepler remain of paramount importance. In this paper, we present a state-of-the-art characterization of the Kepler targets based on Gaia DR3 data. We place the stars on the color-magnitude diagram (CMD), account for the effects of interstellar extinction, and classify targets into several CMD categories (dwarfs, subgiants, red giants, photometric binaries, and others). Additionally, we report various categories of candidate binary systems spanning a range of detection methods, such as Renormalised Unit Weight Error (RUWE), radial velocity variables, Gaia non-single stars (NSS), Kepler and Gaia eclipsing binaries from the literature, among others. First and foremost, our work can assist in the selection of stellar and exoplanet host samples regarding CMD and binary populations. We further complement our catalog by quantifying the impact that astrometric differences between Gaia data releases have on CMD location, assessing the contamination in asteroseismic targets with properties at odds with Gaia, and identifying stars flagged as photometrically variable by Gaia. We make our catalog publicly available as a resource to the community when researching the stars observed by Kepler.

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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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arXiv2023

Constraining stellar and orbital co-evolution through ensemble seismology of solar-like oscillators in binary systems -- A census of oscillating red-giants and main-sequence stars in Gaia DR3 binaries

Binary systems constitute a valuable astrophysics tool for testing our understanding of stellar structure and evolution. Systems containing a oscillating component are interesting as asteroseismology offers independent parameters for the oscillating component that aid the analysis. About 150 of such systems are known in the literature. To enlarge the sample of these benchmark objects, we crossmatch the Two-Body-Orbit Catalogue (TBO) of Gaia DR3, with catalogs of confirmed solar-like oscillators on the main-sequence and red-giant phase from NASA Kepler and TESS. We obtain 954 new binary system candidates hosting solar-like oscillators, of which 45 and 909 stars are on the main sequence and red-giant, resp., including 2 new red giants in eclipsing systems. 918 oscillators in potentially long-periodic systems are reported. We increase the sample size of known solar-like oscillators in binary systems by an order of magnitude. We present the seismic properties of the full sample and conclude that the grand majority of the orbital elements in the TBO is physically reasonable. 82% of all TBO binary candidates with multiple times with APOGEE are confirmed from radial-velocity measurement. However, we suggest that due to instrumental noise of the TESS satellite the seismically inferred masses and radii of stars with $ν_\textrm{max}$$\lesssim$30$μ$Hz could be significantly overestimated. For 146 giants the seismically inferred evolutionary state has been determined and shows clear differences in their distribution in the orbital parameters, which are accounted the accumulative effect of the equilibrium tide acting in these evolved binary systems. For other 146 systems hosting oscillating stars values for the orbital inclination were found in the TBO. From testing the TBO on the SB9 catalogue, we obtain a completeness factor of 1/3.

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arXiv2021

The ASAS-SN Catalog of Variable Stars VII: Contact Binaries are Different Above and Below the Kraft Break

We characterize ${\sim} 71,200$ W UMa type (EW) contact binaries, including ${\sim} 12,600$ new discoveries, using ASAS-SN $V$-band all-sky light curves along with archival data from Gaia, 2MASS, AllWISE, LAMOST, GALAH, RAVE, and APOGEE. There is a clean break in the EW period-luminosity relation at $\rm \log (\rm P/d){\simeq}-0.30$, separating the longer period early-type EW binaries from the shorter period, late-type systems. The two populations are even more cleanly separated in the space of period and effective temperature, by $\rm T_{eff}=6710\,K-1760\,K\,\log(P/0.5\,d)$. Early-type and late-type EW binaries follow opposite trends in $\rm T_{eff}$ with orbital period. For longer periods, early-type EW binaries are cooler, while late-type systems are hotter. We derive period-luminosity relationships (PLRs) in the $W_{JK}$, $V$, Gaia DR2 $G$, $J$, $H$, $K_s$ and $W_1$ bands for the late-type and early-type EW binaries separated both by period and effective temperature, and by period alone. The dichotomy of contact binaries is almost certainly related to the Kraft break and the related changes in envelope structure, winds and angular momentum loss.

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arXiv2019

Surface rotation and photometric activity for Kepler targets I. M and K main-sequence stars

Brightness variations due to dark spots on the stellar surface encode information about stellar surface rotation and magnetic activity. In this work, we analyze the Kepler long-cadence data of 26,521 main-sequence stars of spectral types M and K in order to measure their surface rotation and photometric activity level. Rotation-period estimates are obtained by the combination of a wavelet analysis and autocorrelation function of the light curves. Reliable rotation estimates are determined by comparing the results from the different rotation diagnostics and four data sets. We also measure the photometric activity proxy Sph using the amplitude of the flux variations on an appropriate timescale. We report rotation periods and photometric activity proxies for about 60 per cent of the sample, including 4,431 targets for which McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014) did not report a rotation period. For the common targets with rotation estimates in this study and in McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014), our rotation periods agree within 99 per cent. In this work, we also identify potential polluters, such as misclassified red giants and classical pulsator candidates. Within the parameter range we study, there is a mild tendency for hotter stars to have shorter rotation periods. The photometric activity proxy spans a wider range of values with increasing effective temperature. The rotation period and photometric activity proxy are also related, with Sph being larger for fast rotators. Similar to McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014), we find a bimodal distribution of rotation periods.

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arXiv2018

Confirming chemical clocks: asteroseismic age dissection of the Milky Way disk(s)

Investigations of the origin and evolution of the Milky Way disk have long relied on chemical and kinematic identification of its components to reconstruct our Galactic past. Difficulties in determining precise stellar ages have restricted most studies to small samples, normally confined to the solar neighbourhood. Here we break this impasse with the help of asteroseismic inference and perform a chronology of the evolution of the disk throughout the age of the Galaxy. We chemically dissect the Milky Way disk population using a sample of red giant stars spanning out to 2~kpc in the solar annulus observed by the {\it Kepler} satellite, with the added dimension of asteroseismic ages. Our results reveal a clear difference in age between the low- and high-$α$ populations, which also show distinct velocity dispersions in the $V$ and $W$ components. We find no tight correlation between age and metallicity nor [$α$/Fe] for the high-$α$ disk stars. Our results indicate that this component formed over a period of more than 2~Gyr with a wide range of [M/H] and [$α$/Fe] independent of time. Our findings show that the kinematic properties of young $α$-rich stars are consistent with the rest of the high-$α$ population and different from the low-$α$ stars of similar age, rendering support to their origin being old stars that went through a mass transfer or stellar merger event, making them appear younger, instead of migration of truly young stars formed close to the Galactic bar.

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arXiv2017

Surface rotation of Kepler red giant stars

Kepler allows the measurement of starspot variability in a large sample of field red giants for the first time. With a new method that combines autocorrelation and wavelet decomposition, we measure 361 rotation periods from the full set of 17,377 oscillating red giants in our sample. This represents 2.08% of the stars, consistent with the fraction of spectroscopically detected rapidly rotating giants in the field. The remaining stars do not show enough variability to allow us to measure a reliable surface rotation period. Because the stars with detected rotation periods have measured oscillations, we can infer their global properties, e.g. mass and radius, and quantitatively evaluate the predictions of standard stellar evolution models as a function of mass. Consistent with results for cluster giants when we consider only the 4881 intermediate-mass stars, M>2.0 M$_\odot$ from our full red giant sample, we do not find the enhanced rates of rapid rotation expected from angular momentum conservation. We therefore suggest that either enhanced angular momentum loss or radial differential rotation must be occurring in these stars. Finally, when we examine the 575 low-mass (M<1.1 M$_\odot$) red clump stars in our sample, which were expected to exhibit slow (non-detectable) rotation, 15% of them actually have detectable rotation. This suggests a high rate of interactions and stellar mergers on the red giant branch.

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arXiv2017

PLATO as it is: a legacy mission for Galactic archaeology

Deciphering the assembly history of the Milky Way is a formidable task, which becomes possible only if one can produce high-resolution chrono-chemo-kinematical maps of the Galaxy. Data from large-scale astrometric and spectroscopic surveys will soon provide us with a well-defined view of the current chemo-kinematical structure of the Milky Way, but will only enable a blurred view on the temporal sequence that led to the present-day Galaxy. As demonstrated by the (ongoing) exploitation of data from the pioneering photometric missions CoRoT, Kepler, and K2, asteroseismology provides the way forward: solar-like oscillating giants are excellent evolutionary clocks thanks to the availability of seismic constraints on their mass and to the tight age-initial-mass relation they adhere to. In this paper we identify five key outstanding questions relating to the formation and evolution of the Milky Way that will need precise and accurate ages for large samples of stars to be addressed, and we identify the requirements in terms of number of targets and the precision on the stellar properties that are needed to tackle such questions. By quantifying the asteroseismic yields expected from PLATO for red-giant stars, we demonstrate that these requirements are within the capabilities of the current instrument design, provided that observations are sufficiently long to identify the evolutionary state and allow robust and precise determination of acoustic-mode frequencies. This will allow us to harvest data of sufficient quality to reach a 10% precision in age. This is a fundamental pre-requisite to then reach the more ambitious goal of a similar level of accuracy, which will only be possible if we have to hand a careful appraisal of systematic uncertainties on age deriving from our limited understanding of stellar physics, a goal which conveniently falls within the main aims of PLATO's core science.

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arXiv2015

Rotation periods and seismic ages of KOIs - comparison with stars without detected planets from Kepler observations

One of the most difficult properties to derive for stars is their age. For cool main-sequence stars, gyrochronology relations can be used to infer stellar ages from measured rotation pe- riods and HR Diagram positions. These relations have few calibrators with known ages for old, long rotation period stars. There is a significant sample of old Kepler objects of inter- est, or KOIs, which have both measurable surface rotation periods and precise asteroseismic measurements from which ages can be accurately derived. In this work we determine the age and the rotation period of solar-like pulsating KOIs to both compare the rotation properties of stars with and without known planets and enlarge the gyrochronology calibration sample for old stars. We use Kepler photometric light curves to derive the stellar surface rotation peri- ods while ages are obtained with asteroseismology using the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal in which individual mode frequencies are combined with high-resolution spectroscopic pa- rameters. We thus determine surface rotation periods and ages for 11 planet-hosting stars, all over 2 Gyr old. We find that the planet-hosting stars exhibit a rotational behaviour that is consistent with the latest age-rotation models and similar to the rotational behaviour of stars without detected planets. We conclude that these old KOIs can be used to test and calibrate gyrochronology along with stars not known to host planets.

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arXiv2013

The chemical composition of the Sun from helioseismic and solar neutrino data

We perform a quantitative analysis of the solar composition problem by using a statistical approach that allows us to combine the information provided by helioseimic and solar neutrino data in an effective way. We include in our analysis the helioseismic determinations of the surface helium abundance and of the depth of the convective envelope, the measurements of the $^7{\rm Be}$ and $^8{\rm B}$ neutrino fluxes, the sound speed profile inferred from helioseismic frequencies. We provide all the ingredients to describe how these quantities depend on the solar surface composition and to evaluate the (correlated) uncertainties in solar model predictions. We include errors sources that are not traditionally considered such as those from inversion of helioseismic data. We, then, apply the proposed approach to infer the chemical composition of the Sun. We show that the opacity profile of the Sun is well constrained by the solar observational properties. In the context of a two parameter analysis in which elements are grouped as volatiles (i.e. C, N, O and Ne) and refractories (i.e Mg, Si, S, Fe), the optimal composition is found by increasing the the abundance of volatiles by $\left( 45\pm 4\right)\%$ and that of refractories by $\left( 19\pm 3\right)\%$ with respect to the values provided by AGSS09. This corresponds to the abundances $\varepsilon_{\rm O}=8.85\pm 0.01$ and $\varepsilon_{\rm Fe}=7.52\pm0.01$. As an additional result of our analysis, we show that the observational data prefer values for the input parameters of the standard solar models (radiative opacities, gravitational settling rate, the astrophysical factors $S_{34}$ and $S_{17}$) that differ at the $\sim 1σ$ level from those presently adopted.

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arXiv2013

Study of KIC 8561221 observed by Kepler: an early red giant showing depressed dipolar modes

The continuous high-precision photometric observations provided by the CoRoT and Kepler space missions have allowed us to better understand the structure and dynamics of red giants using asteroseismic techniques. A small fraction of these stars shows dipole modes with unexpectedly low amplitudes. The reduction in amplitude is more pronounced for stars with higher frequency of maximum power. In this work we want to characterize KIC 8561221 in order to confirm that it is currently the least evolved star among this peculiar subset and to discuss several hypotheses that could help explain the reduction of the dipole mode amplitudes. We used Kepler short- and long-cadence data combined with spectroscopic observations to infer the stellar structure and dynamics of KIC 8561221. We then discussed different scenarios that could contribute to the reduction of the dipole amplitudes such as a fast rotating interior or the effect of a magnetic field on the properties of the modes. We also performed a detailed study of the inertia and damping of the modes. We have been able to characterize 37 oscillations modes, in particular, a few dipole modes above nu_max that exhibit nearly normal amplitudes. We have inferred a surface rotation period of around 91 days and uncovered the existence of a variation in the surface magnetic activity during the last 4 years. As expected, the internal regions of the star probed by the l = 2 and 3 modes spin 4 to 8 times faster than the surface. With our grid of standard models we are able to properly fit the observed frequencies. Our model calculation of mode inertia and damping give no explanation for the depressed dipole modes. A fast rotating core is also ruled out as a possible explanation. Finally, we do not have any observational evidence of the presence of a strong deep magnetic field inside the star.

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arXiv2013

Kepler White Paper: Asteroseismology of Solar-Like Oscillators in a 2-Wheel Mission

We comment on the potential for continuing asteroseismology of solar-type and red-giant stars in a 2-wheel Kepler Mission. Our main conclusion is that by targeting stars in the ecliptic it should be possible to perform high-quality asteroseismology, as long as favorable scenarios for 2-wheel pointing performance are met. Targeting the ecliptic would potentially facilitate unique science that was not possible in the nominal Mission, notably from the study of clusters that are significantly brighter than those in the Kepler field. Our conclusions are based on predictions of 2-wheel observations made by a space photometry simulator, with information provided by the Kepler Project used as input to describe the degraded pointing scenarios. We find that elevated levels of frequency-dependent noise, consistent with the above scenarios, would have a significant negative impact on our ability to continue asteroseismic studies of solar-like oscillators in the Kepler field. However, the situation may be much more optimistic for observations in the ecliptic, provided that pointing resets of the spacecraft during regular desaturations of the two functioning reaction wheels are accurate at the < 1 arcsec level. This would make it possible to apply a post-hoc analysis that would recover most of the lost photometric precision. Without this post-hoc correction---and the accurate re-pointing it requires---the performance would probably be as poor as in the Kepler-field case. Critical to our conclusions for both fields is the assumed level of pointing noise (in the short-term jitter and the longer-term drift). We suggest that further tests will be needed to clarify our results once more detail and data on the expected pointing performance becomes available, and we offer our assistance in this work.

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arXiv2013

Calibrations of Atmospheric Parameters Obtained from the First Year of SDSS-III APOGEE Observations

The SDSS-III Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) is a three year survey that is collecting 100,000 high-resolution spectra in the near-IR across multiple Galactic populations. To derive stellar parameters and chemical compositions from this massive data set, the APOGEE Stellar Parameters and Chemical Abundances Pipeline (ASPCAP) has been developed. Here, we describe empirical calibrations of stellar parameters presented in the first SDSS-III APOGEE data release (DR10). These calibrations were enabled by observations of 559 stars in 20 globular and open clusters. The cluster observations were supplemented by observations of stars in NASA's Kepler field that have well determined surface gravities from asteroseismic analysis. We discuss the accuracy and precision of the derived stellar parameters, considering especially effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity; we also briefly discuss the derived results for the abundances of the alpha-elements, carbon, and nitrogen. Overall, we find that ASPCAP achieves reasonably accurate results for temperature and metallicity, but suffers from systematic errors in surface gravity. We derive calibration relations that bring the raw ASPCAP results into better agreement with independently determined stellar parameters. The internal scatter of ASPCAP parameters within clusters suggests that, metallicities are measured with a precision better than 0.1 dex, effective temperatures better than 150 K, and surface gravities better than 0.2 dex. The understanding provided by the clusters and Kepler giants on the current accuracy and precision will be invaluable for future improvements of the pipeline.

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arXiv2012

MOA-2010-BLG-523: "Failed Planet" = RS CVn Star

The Galactic bulge source MOA-2010-BLG-523S exhibited short-term deviations from a standard microlensing lightcurve near the peak of an Amax ~ 265 high-magnification microlensing event. The deviations originally seemed consistent with expectations for a planetary companion to the principal lens. We combine long-term photometric monitoring with a previously published high-resolution spectrum taken near peak to demonstrate that this is an RS CVn variable, so that planetary microlensing is not required to explain the lightcurve deviations. This is the first spectroscopically confirmed RS CVn star discovered in the Galactic bulge.

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arXiv2012

Fundamental Properties of Stars using Asteroseismology from Kepler & CoRoT and Interferometry from the CHARA Array

We present results of a long-baseline interferometry campaign using the PAVO beam combiner at the CHARA Array to measure the angular sizes of five main-sequence stars, one subgiant and four red giant stars for which solar-like oscillations have been detected by either Kepler or CoRoT. By combining interferometric angular diameters, Hipparcos parallaxes, asteroseismic densities, bolometric fluxes and high-resolution spectroscopy we derive a full set of near model-independent fundamental properties for the sample. We first use these properties to test asteroseismic scaling relations for the frequency of maximum power (nu_max) and the large frequency separation (Delta_nu). We find excellent agreement within the observational uncertainties, and empirically show that simple estimates of asteroseismic radii for main-sequence stars are accurate to <~4%. We furthermore find good agreement of our measured effective temperatures with spectroscopic and photometric estimates with mean deviations for stars between T_eff = 4600-6200 K of -22+/-32 K (with a scatter of 97K) and -58+/-31 K (with a scatter of 93 K), respectively. Finally we present a first comparison with evolutionary models, and find differences between observed and theoretical properties for the metal-rich main-sequence star HD173701. We conclude that the constraints presented in this study will have strong potential for testing stellar model physics, in particular when combined with detailed modelling of individual oscillation frequencies.

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arXiv2012

Verifying asteroseismically determined parameters of Kepler stars using hipparcos parallaxes: self-consistent stellar properties and distances

Accurately determining the properties of stars is of prime importance for characterizing stellar populations in our Galaxy. The field of asteroseismology has been thought to be particularly successful in such an endeavor for stars in different evolutionary stages. However, to fully exploit its potential, robust methods for estimating stellar parameters are required and independent verification of the results is mandatory. With this purpose, we present a new technique to obtain stellar properties by coupling asteroseismic analysis with the InfraRed Flux Method. By using two global seismic observables and multi-band photometry, the technique allows us to obtain masses, radii, effective temperatures, bolometric fluxes, and hence distances for field stars in a self-consistent manner. We apply our method to 22 solar-like oscillators in the Kepler short-cadence sample, that have accurate Hipparcos parallaxes. Our distance determinations agree to better than 5%, while measurements of spectroscopic effective temperatures and interferometric radii also validate our results. We briefly discuss the potential of our technique for stellar population analysis and models of Galactic Chemical Evolution.

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arXiv2011

Ensemble Asteroseismology of Solar-Type Stars with the NASA Kepler Mission

In addition to its search for extra-solar planets, the NASA Kepler Mission provides exquisite data on stellar oscillations. We report the detections of oscillations in 500 solartype stars in the Kepler field of view, an ensemble that is large enough to allow statistical studies of intrinsic stellar properties (such as mass, radius and age) and to test theories of stellar evolution. We find that the distribution of observed masses of these stars shows intriguing differences to predictions from models of synthetic stellar populations in the Galaxy.

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