Effect of local treatments of convection upon the solar p-mode excitation rates

We compute, for several solar models, the rates P at which the solar radial p modes are expected to be excited. The solar models are computed with two different local treatments of convection : the classical mixing-length theory (MLT hereafter) and Canuto, Goldmann and Mazzitelli(1996, CGM hereafter)'s formulation. For one set of solar models (EMLT and ECGM models), the atmosphere is gray and assumes Eddington's approximation. For a second set of models (KMLT and KCGM models), the atmosphere is built using a T(tau) law which has been obtained from a Kurucz's model atmosphere computed with the same local treatment of convection. The mixing-length parameter in the model atmosphere is chosen so as to provide a good agreement between synthetic and observed Balmer line profiles, while the mixing-length parameter in the interior model is calibrated so that the model reproduces the solar radius at solar age. For the MLT treatment, the rates P do depend significantly on the properties of the atmosphere. On the other hand, for the CGM treatment, differences in P between the ECGM and the KCGM models are very small compared to the error bars attached to the seismic measurements. The excitation rates P for modes from the EMLT model are significantly under-estimated compared with the solar seismic constraints. The KMLT model results in intermediate values for P and shows also an important discontinuity in the temperature gradient and the convective velocity. On the other hand, the KCGM model and the ECGM model yield values for P closer to the seismic data than the EMLT and KMLT models. We conclude that the solar p-mode excitation rates provide valuable constraints and according to the present investigation cleary favor the CGM treatment with respect to the MLT.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the SOHO14/GONG 2004 workshop "Helio- and Asteroseismology: Towards a Golden Future" from July 12-16 2004 at New Haven CT (USA

Mode stability in delta Scuti stars: linear analysis versus observations in open clusters

A comparison between linear stability analysis and observations of pulsation modes in five delta Scuti stars, belonging to the same cluster, is presented. The study is based on the work by Michel et al. (1999), in which such a comparison was performed for a representative set of model solutions obtained independently for each individual star considered. In this paper we revisit the work by Michel et al. (1999) following, however, a new approach which consists in the search for a single, complete, and coherent solution for all the selected stars, in order to constrain and test the assumed physics describing these objects. To do so, refined descriptions for the effects of rotation on the determination of the global stellar parameters and on the adiabatic oscillation frequency computations are used. In addition, a crude attempt is made to study the role of rotation on the prediction of mode instabilities.The present results are found to be comparable with those reported by Michel et al. (1999). Within the temperature range log T_eff = 3.87-3.88 agreement between observations and model computations of unstable modes is restricted to values for the mixing-length parameter alpha_nl less or equal to 1.50. This indicates that for these stars a smaller value for alpha_nl is required than suggested from a calibrated solar model. We stress the point that the linear stability analysis used in this work still assumes stellar models without rotation and that further developments are required for a proper description of the interaction between rotation and pulsation dynamics.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. (MNRAS, in press

Asteroseismology of delta Scuti stars in open clusters: Praesepe

The present paper provides a general overview of the asteroseismic potential of delta Scuti stars in clusters, in particular focusing on convection diagnostics. We give a summarise of the last results obtained by the authors for the Praesepe cluster of which five delta Scuti stars are analysed. In that work, linear analysis is confronted with observations, using refined descriptions for the effects of rotation on the determination of the global stellar parameters and on the adiabatic oscillation frequency computations. A single, complete, and coherent solution for all the selected stars is found, which lead the authors to find important restrictions to the convection description for a certain range of effective temperatures. Furthermore, the method used allowed to give an estimate of the global parameters of the selected stars and constrain the cluster.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Communications in Asteroseismolog

Modeling the HD32297 Debris Disk with Far-IR Herschel Data

HD32297 is a young A-star (~30 Myr) 112 pc away with a bright edge-on debris disk that has been resolved in scattered light. We observed the HD32297 debris disk in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter with the Herschel Space Observatory PACS and SPIRE instruments, populating the spectral energy distribution (SED) from 63 to 500{\mu}m. We aimed to determine the composition of dust grains in the HD32297 disk through SED modeling, using geometrical constraints from the resolved imaging to break degeneracies inherent in SED modeling. We found the best fitting SED model has 2 components: an outer ring centered around 110 AU, seen in the scattered light images, and an inner disk near the habitable zone of the star. The outer disk appears to be composed of grains > 2{\mu}m consisting of silicates, carbonaceous material, and water ice with an abundance ratio of 1:2:3 respectively and 90% porosity. These grains appear consistent with cometary grains, implying the underlying planetesimal population is dominated by comet-like bodies. We also discuss the 3.7{\sigma} detection of [C II] emission at 158{\mu}m with the Herschel PACS Spectrometer, making HD32297 one of only a handful of debris disks with circumstellar gas detected.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Influence of local treatments of convection upon solar p mode excitation rates

We compute the rates P at which acoustic energy is injected into the solar radial p modes for several solar models. The solar models are computed with two different local treatments of convection: the classical mixing-length theory (MLT hereafter) and Canuto et al (1996)'s formulation (CGM hereafter). Among the models investigated here, our best models reproduce both the solar radius and the solar luminosity at solar age and the observed Balmer line profiles. For the MLT treatment, the rates P do depend significantly on the properties of the atmosphere whereas for the CGM's treatment the dependence of P on the properties of the atmosphere is found smaller than the error bars attached to the seismic measurements. The excitation rates P for modes associated with the MLT models are significantly underestimated compared with the solar seismic constraints. The CGM models yield values for P closer to the seismic data than the MLT models. We conclude that the solar p-mode excitation rates provide valuable constraints and according to the present investigation clearly favor the CGM treatment with respect to the MLT, although neither of them yields values of P as close to the observations as recently found for 3D numerical simulations.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Nanowriting on an Atomically Flat Gold Surface with Scanning Tunneling Microscope

We present new experimental results of writing stable features on atomically flat surfaces of gold films. By applying successive voltage pulses across the tunneling gap in controlled atmosphere, nearly 150 individual holes are produced to record one message. The writing process has a higher success rate in nitrogen gas with the presence of water or ethanol vapour. Written letters remain stable for more than 4 days in dry nitrogen gas, in contrast to some previous STM results of monatomic step movement on the gold surface. By changing the vapour pressure, pulse amplitude and polarity, we succeed in controlling the gold surface modification (feature dimensions, choice of mound or pit). The smallest stable nano-hole formed is 3 run in diameter and 0.24 nm in depth, which represents the loss of about 100 Au atoms. The destiny of these missing atoms is unknown but the clear-cut feature of the hole indicates that they have been moved far away. We report for the first time the existence of a minimum relative humidity (18% at 22°C) for the formation of nano-hole, which implies that the reaction may be electrochemical in origin