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4 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 4

Abstract (Expand)

Context: Stars that are members of stellar clusters are assumed to be formed at the same time and place from material with the same initial chemical composition. These additional constraints on the ensemble of cluster stars make these stars suitable as benchmarks. Aims: We aimed (1) to identify previously unknown red giants in the open clusters NGC 6791 and NGC 6819, (2) to extract their asteroseismic parameters, and (3) to determine their cluster membership. Methods: We followed a dedicated method based on difference imaging to extract the light curves of potential red giants in NGC 6791 and NGC 6819 from Kepler superstamp data. We extracted the asteroseismic parameters of the stars that showed solar-like oscillations. We performed an asteroseismic membership study to identify which of these stars are likely to be cluster members. Results: We found 149 red giant stars within the Kepler superstamps, 93 of which are likely cluster members. We were able to find 29 red giants that are not primary targets of Kepler, and therefore, their light curves had not been released previously. Five of these previously unknown red giants have a cluster membership probability greater than 95%.

Authors: A. Covelo-Paz, N. Themeßl, F. Espinoza-Rojas, S. Hekker

Date Published: 1st Nov 2023

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

Abstract Asteroseismology has become widely accepted as a benchmark for accurate and precise fundamental stellar properties. It can therefore be used to validate and calibrate stellar parameters derivedeters derived from other approaches. Meanwhile, one can leverage large-volume surveys in photometry, spectroscopy, and astrometry to infer stellar parameters over a wide range of evolutionary stages, independently of asteroseismology. Our pipeline, SEDEX (https://github.com/Jieyu126/SEDEX), compares the spectral energy distribution predicted by the MARCS and BOSZ model spectra with 32 photometric bandpasses, combining data from nine major, large-volume photometric surveys. We restrict the analysis to targets with available spectroscopy from the APOGEE, GALAH, and RAVE surveys to lift the temperature−extinction degeneracy. The cross-survey atmospheric parameter and uncertainty estimates are homogenized with artificial neural networks. Validation of our results with CHARA interferometry, Hubble Space Telescope CALSPEC spectrophotometry, and asteroseismology shows that we achieve high precision and accuracy. We present a catalog of improved interstellar extinction (σAV≃0.14 mag) and stellar radii (σR/R≃ 7.4%) for ∼1.5 million stars in the low-to-high-extinction (AV≲ 6 mag) fields observed by the spectroscopic surveys. We derive global extinctions for 184 Gaia DR2 open clusters and confirm the differential extinction in NGC 6791 and NGC 6819, which have been subject to extensive asteroseismic analysis. Furthermore, we report 36,854 double-lined spectroscopic main-sequence binary candidates. This catalog will be valuable for providing constraints on detailed modeling of stars and for constructing 3D dust maps of the Kepler field, the TESS Continuous Viewing Zones, and the PLATO long-duration observation fields.

Authors: Jie Yu, Shourya Khanna, Nathalie Themessl, Saskia Hekker, Guillaume Dréau, Laurent Gizon, Shaolan Bi

Date Published: 1st Feb 2023

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

We report the discovery of a warm sub-Saturn, TOI-257b (HD 19916b), based on data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The transit signal was detected by TESS and confirmed to be of planetary origin based on radial velocity observations. An analysis of the TESS photometry, the MINERVA-Australis, FEROS, and HARPS radial velocities, and the asteroseismic data of the stellar oscillations reveals that TOI-257b has a mass of MP = 0.138 ± 0.023 MJ (43.9 ± 7.3 M⊕ ), a radius of RP = 0.639 ± 0.013 RJ (7.16 ± 0.15 R⊕ ), bulk density of 0.65+0.12−0.11 (cgs), and period 18.38818+0.00085−0.00084 days . TOI-257b orbits a bright (V = 7.612 mag) somewhat evolved late F-type star with M* = 1.390 ± 0.046 Msun , R* = 1.888 ± 0.033 Rsun , Teff = 6075 ± 90 K , and vsin i = 11.3 ± 0.5 km s-1. Additionally, we find hints for a second non-transiting sub-Saturn mass planet on a ∼71 day orbit using the radial velocity data. This system joins the ranks of a small number of exoplanet host stars (∼100) that have been characterized with asteroseismology. Warm sub-Saturns are rare in the known sample of exoplanets, and thus the discovery of TOI-257b is important in the context of future work studying the formation and migration history of similar planetary systems.

Authors: Brett C Addison, Duncan J Wright, Belinda A Nicholson, Bryson Cale, Teo Mocnik, Daniel Huber, Peter Plavchan, Robert A Wittenmyer, Andrew Vanderburg, William J Chaplin, Ashley Chontos, Jake T Clark, Jason D Eastman, Carl Ziegler, Rafael Brahm, Bradley D Carter, Mathieu Clerte, Néstor Espinoza, Jonathan Horner, John Bentley, Andrés Jordán, Stephen R Kane, John F Kielkopf, Emilie Laychock, Matthew W Mengel, Jack Okumura, Keivan G Stassun, Timothy R Bedding, Brendan P Bowler, Andrius Burnelis, Sergi Blanco-Cuaresma, Michaela Collins, Ian Crossfield, Allen B Davis, Dag Evensberget, Alexis Heitzmann, Steve B Howell, Nicholas Law, Andrew W Mann, Stephen C Marsden, Rachel A Matson, James H O’Connor, Avi Shporer, Catherine Stevens, C G Tinney, Christopher Tylor, Songhu Wang, Hui Zhang, Thomas Henning, Diana Kossakowski, George Ricker, Paula Sarkis, Martin Schlecker, Pascal Torres, Roland Vanderspek, David W Latham, Sara Seager, Joshua N Winn, Jon M Jenkins, Ismael Mireles, Pam Rowden, Joshua Pepper, Tansu Daylan, Joshua E Schlieder, Karen A Collins, Kevin I Collins, Thiam-Guan Tan, Warrick H Ball, Sarbani Basu, Derek L Buzasi, Tiago L Campante, Enrico Corsaro, L González-Cuesta, Guy R Davies, Leandro de Almeida, Jose-Dias do Nascimento, Rafael A García, Zhao Guo, Rasmus Handberg, Saskia Hekker, Daniel R Hey, Thomas Kallinger, Steven D Kawaler, Cenk Kayhan, James S. Kuszlewicz, Mikkel N Lund, Alexander Lyttle, Savita Mathur, Andrea Miglio, Benoit Mosser, Martin B Nielsen, Aldo M Serenelli, Victor Silva Aguirre, Nathalie Themeßl

Date Published: 1st Apr 2021

Publication Type: Journal

Abstract (Expand)

Mass-loss by red giants is an important process to understand the final stages of stellar evolution and the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium. Mass-loss rates are thought to be controlled by pulsation-enhanced dust-driven outflows. Here, we investigate the relationships between mass-loss, pulsations, and radiation, using 3213 luminous Kepler red giants and 13 5000 ASAS-SN semiregulars and Miras. Mass-loss rates are traced by infrared colours using 2MASS and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE) and by observed-to-model WISE fluxes, and are also estimated using dust mass-loss rates from literature assuming a typical gas-to-dust mass ratio of 400. To specify the pulsations, we extract the period and height of the highest peak in the power spectrum of oscillation. Absolute magnitudes are obtained from the 2MASS Ks band and the Gaia DR2 parallaxes. Our results follow. (i) Substantial mass-loss sets in at pulsation periods above ∼60 and ∼100 d, corresponding to Asymptotic-Giant-Branch stars at the base of the period-luminosity sequences C' and C. (ii) The mass-loss rate starts to rapidly increase in semiregulars for which the luminosity is just above the red-giant-branch tip and gradually plateaus to a level similar to that of Miras. (iii) The mass-loss rates in Miras do not depend on luminosity, consistent with pulsation-enhanced dust-driven winds. (iv) The accumulated mass-loss on the red giant branch consistent with asteroseismic predictions reduces the masses of red-clump stars by 6.3 per cent, less than the typical uncertainty on their asteroseismic masses. Thus mass-loss is currently not a limitation of stellar age estimates for galactic archaeology studies.

Authors: Jie Yu, Saskia Hekker, Timothy R Bedding, Dennis Stello, Daniel Huber, Laurent Gizon, Shourya Khanna, Shaolan Bi

Date Published: 1st Mar 2021

Publication Type: Journal

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