405 research outputs found
Anomalous expansion and phonon damping due to the Co spin-state transition in RCoO_3 with R = La, Pr, Nd and Eu
We present a combined study of the thermal expansion and the thermal
conductivity of the perovskite series RCoO_3 with R = La, Nd, Pr and Eu. The
well-known spin-state transition in LaCoO_3 is strongly affected by the
exchange of the R ions due to their different ionic radii, i.e. chemical
pressure. This can be monitored in detail by measurements of the thermal
expansion, which is a highly sensitive probe for detecting spin-state
transitions. The Co ions in the higher spin state act as additional scattering
centers for phonons, therefore suppressing the phonon thermal conductivity.
Based on the analysis of the interplay between spin-state transition and heat
transport, we present a quantitative model of the thermal conductivity for the
entire series. In PrCoO_3, an additional scattering effect is active at low
temperatures. This effect arises from the crystal field splitting of the 4f
multiplet, which allows for resonant scattering of phonons between the various
4f levels.Comment: 15 pages including 5 figure
Evidence for a temperature-induced spin-state transition of Co3+ in La2-xSrxCoO4
We study the magnetic susceptibility of mixed-valent La2-xSrxCoO4 single
crystals in the doping range of 0.5<= x <= 0.8 for temperatures up to 1000 K.
The magnetism below room temperature is described by paramagnetic Co2+ in the
high-spin state and by Co3+ in the non-magnetic low-spin state. Above room
temperature, an increase in susceptibility compared to the behavior expected
from Co2+ is seen, which we attribute to a spin-state transition of Co3+. The
susceptibility is analyzed by comparison to full-multiplet calculations for the
thermal population of the high- and intermediate-spin states of Co3+
Asteroseismic detection of latitudinal differential rotation in 13 Sun-like stars
The differentially rotating outer layers of stars are thought to play a role
in driving their magnetic activity, but the underlying mechanisms that generate
and sustain differential rotation are poorly understood. We report the
measurement of latitudinal differential rotation in the convection zones of 40
Sun-like stars using asteroseismology. For the most significant detections, the
stars' equators rotate approximately twice as fast as their mid-latitudes. The
latitudinal shear inferred from asteroseismology is much larger than
predictions from numerical simulations.Comment: 45 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, published in Scienc
Estimating stellar mean density through seismic inversions
Determining the mass of stars is crucial both to improving stellar evolution
theory and to characterising exoplanetary systems. Asteroseismology offers a
promising way to estimate stellar mean density. When combined with accurate
radii determinations, such as is expected from GAIA, this yields accurate
stellar masses. The main difficulty is finding the best way to extract the mean
density from a set of observed frequencies.
We seek to establish a new method for estimating stellar mean density, which
combines the simplicity of a scaling law while providing the accuracy of an
inversion technique.
We provide a framework in which to construct and evaluate kernel-based linear
inversions which yield directly the mean density of a star. We then describe
three different inversion techniques (SOLA and two scaling laws) and apply them
to the sun, several test cases and three stars.
The SOLA approach and the scaling law based on the surface correcting
technique described by Kjeldsen et al. (2008) yield comparable results which
can reach an accuracy of 0.5 % and are better than scaling the large frequency
separation. The reason for this is that the averaging kernels from the two
first methods are comparable in quality and are better than what is obtained
with the large frequency separation. It is also shown that scaling the large
frequency separation is more sensitive to near-surface effects, but is much
less affected by an incorrect mode identification. As a result, one can
identify pulsation modes by looking for an l and n assignment which provides
the best agreement between the results from the large frequency separation and
those from one of the two other methods. Non-linear effects are also discussed
as is the effects of mixed modes. In particular, it is shown that mixed modes
bring little improvement as a result of their poorly adapted kernels.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 20 pages, 19 figure
Butterfly diagram of a Sun-like star observed using asteroseismology
Stellar magnetic fields are poorly understood but are known to be important
for stellar evolution and exoplanet habitability. They drive stellar activity,
which is the main observational constraint on theoretical models for magnetic
field generation and evolution. Starspots are the main manifestation of the
magnetic fields at the stellar surface. In this study we measure the variation
of their latitude with time, called a butterfly diagram in the solar case, for
the solar analogue HD 173701 (KIC 8006161). To that effect, we use Kepler data,
to combine starspot rotation rates at different epochs and the
asteroseismically determined latitudinal variation of the stellar rotation
rates. We observe a clear variation of the latitude of the starspots. It is the
first time such a diagram is constructed using asteroseismic data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted in A&A Letter
Open issues in probing interiors of solar-like oscillating main sequence stars: 2. Diversity in the HR diagram
We review some major open issues in the current modelling of low and
intermediate mass, main sequence stars based on seismological studies. The
solar case was discussed in a companion paper, here several issues specific to
other stars than the Sun are illustrated with a few stars observed with CoRoT
and expectations from Kepler data.Comment: GONG 2010 - SoHO 24, A new era of seismology of the Sun and
solar-like stars, To be published in the Journal of Physics: Conference
Series (JPCS
The CoRoT target HD 49933: 2- Comparison of theoretical mode amplitudes with observations
From the seismic data obtained by CoRoT for the star HD 49933 it is possible,
as for the Sun, to constrain models of the excitation of acoustic modes by
turbulent convection. We compare a stochastic excitation model described in
Paper I (arXiv:0910.4027) with the asteroseismology data for HD 49933, a star
that is rather metal poor and significantly hotter than the Sun. Using the mode
linewidths measured by CoRoT for HD 49933 and the theoretical mode excitation
rates computed in Paper I, we derive the expected surface velocity amplitudes
of the acoustic modes detected in HD 49933. Using a calibrated quasi-adiabatic
approximation relating the mode amplitudes in intensity to those in velocity,
we derive the expected values of the mode amplitude in intensity. Our amplitude
calculations are within 1-sigma error bars of the mode surface velocity
spectrum derived with the HARPS spectrograph. The same is found with the mode
amplitudes in intensity derived for HD 49933 from the CoRoT data. On the other
hand, at high frequency, our calculations significantly depart from the CoRoT
and HARPS measurements. We show that assuming a solar metal abundance rather
than the actual metal abundance of the star would result in a larger
discrepancy with the seismic data. Furthermore, calculations that assume the
``new'' solar chemical mixture are in better agreement with the seismic data
than those that assume the ``old'' solar chemical mixture. These results
validate, in the case of a star significantly hotter than the Sun and Alpha Cen
A, the main assumptions in the model of stochastic excitation. However, the
discrepancies seen at high frequency highlight some deficiencies of the
modelling, whose origin remains to be understood.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures (B-W and color), accepted for publication in
Astronomy & Astrophysics. Corrected typo in Eq. (4). Updated references.
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