32 research outputs found
The Second APOKASC Catalog: The Empirical Approach
We present a catalog of stellar properties for a large sample of 6676 evolved
stars with APOGEE spectroscopic parameters and \textit{Kepler} asteroseismic
data analyzed using five independent techniques. Our data includes evolutionary
state, surface gravity, mean density, mass, radius, age, and the spectroscopic
and asteroseismic measurements used to derive them. We employ a new empirical
approach for combining asteroseismic measurements from different methods,
calibrating the inferred stellar parameters, and estimating uncertainties. With
high statistical significance, we find that asteroseismic parameters inferred
from the different pipelines have systematic offsets that are not removed by
accounting for differences in their solar reference values. We include
theoretically motivated corrections to the large frequency spacing () scaling relation, and we calibrate the zero point of the frequency of
maximum power () relation to be consistent with masses and radii
for members of star clusters. For most targets, the parameters returned by
different pipelines are in much better agreement than would be expected from
the pipeline-predicted random errors, but 22\% of them had at least one method
not return a result and a much larger measurement dispersion. This supports the
usage of multiple analysis techniques for asteroseismic stellar population
studies. The measured dispersion in mass estimates for fundamental calibrators
is consistent with our error model, which yields median random and systematic
mass uncertainties for RGB stars of order 4\%. Median random and systematic
mass uncertainties are at the 9\% and 8\% level respectively for RC stars.Comment: 29 pages, 26 figures. Submitted ApJSupp. Comments welcome. For access
to the main data table (Table 5) use
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k33td8ukefwy5tv/APOKASC2_Table5.txt?dl=0; for
access to the individual pipeline values (Table 6) use
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vl9s2p3obftrv8m/APOKASC2_Table6.txt?dl=
New light on the Gaia DR2 parallax zero-point:influence of the asteroseismic approach, in and beyond the Kepler field
The importance of studying the Gaia DR2 parallax zero-point by external means
was underlined by Lindegren et al. (2018), and initiated by several works
making use of Cepheids, eclipsing binaries, and asteroseismology. Despite a
very efficient elimination of basic-angle variations, a small fluctuation
remains and shows up as a small offset in the Gaia DR2 parallaxes. By combining
astrometric, asteroseismic, spectroscopic, and photometric constraints, we
undertake a new analysis of the Gaia parallax offset for nearly 3000 red-giant
branch (RGB) and 2200 red clump (RC) stars observed by Kepler, as well as about
500 and 700 red giants (both RGB and RC) selected by the K2 Galactic
Archaeology Program in campaigns 3 and 6. Engaging into a thorough comparison
of the astrometric and asteroseismic parallaxes, we are able to highlight the
influence of the asteroseismic method, and measure parallax offsets in the
Kepler field that are compatible with independent estimates from literature and
open clusters. Moreover, adding the K2 fields to our investigation allows us to
retrieve a clear illustration of the positional dependence of the zero-point,
in general agreement with the information provided by quasars. Lastly, we
initiate a two-step methodology to make progress in the simultaneous
calibration of the asteroseismic scaling relations and of the Gaia DR2 parallax
offset, which will greatly benefit from the gain in precision with the third
Data Release of Gaia.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figures, Accepted for publication in A&
A new generation of Parsec-Colibri stellar isochrones including the TP-AGB phase
We introduce a new generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI stellar isochrones that includes a detailed treatment of the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase, covering a wide range of initial metallicities (0.0001. < Z(i) < 0.06). Compared to previous releases, the main novelties and improvements are use of new TP-AGB tracks and related atmosphere models and spectra for M and C-type stars; inclusion of the surface H+He +CNO abundances in the isochrone tables, accounting for the effects of diffusion, dredge-up episodes and hot-bottom burning; inclusion of complete thermal pulse cycles, with a complete description of the in-cycle changes in the stellar parameters; new pulsation models to describe the long-period variability in the fundamental and firstovertone modes; and new dust models that follow the growth of the grains during the AGB evolution, in combination with radiative transfer calculations for the reprocessing of the photospheric emission. Overall, these improvements are expected to lead to a more consistent and detailed description of properties of TP-AGB stars expected in resolved stellar populations, especially in regard to their mean photometric properties from optical to mid-infrared wavelengths. We illustrate the expected numbers of TP-AGB stars of different types in stellar populations covering a wide range of ages and initial metallicities, providing further details on the "C-star island" that appears at intermediate values of age and metallicity, and about the AGB-boosting effect that occurs at ages close to 1.6-Gyr for populations of all metallicities. The isochrones are available through a new dedicated web server
Age dating of an early Milky Way merger via asteroseismology of the naked-eye star ν Indi
Over the course of its history, the Milky Way has ingested multiple smaller satellite galaxies1. Although these accreted stellar populations can be forensically identified as kinematically distinct structures within the Galaxy, it is difficult in general to date precisely the age at which any one merger occurred. Recent results have revealed a population of stars that were accreted via the collision of a dwarf galaxy, called Gaia–Enceladus1, leading to substantial pollution of the chemical and dynamical properties of the Milky Way. Here we identify the very bright, naked-eye star ν Indi as an indicator of the age of the early in situ population of the Galaxy. We combine asteroseismic, spectroscopic, astrometric and kinematic observations to show that this metal-poor, alpha-element-rich star was an indigenous member of the halo, and we measure its age to be 11.0±0.7 (stat) ±0.8 (sys) billion years. The star bears hallmarks consistent with having been kinematically heated by the Gaia–Enceladus collision. Its age implies that the earliest the merger could have begun was 11.6 and 13.2 billion years ago, at 68% and 95% confidence, respectively. Computations based on hierarchical cosmological models slightly reduce the above limits
The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III
The third generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) took data from 2008 to 2014 using the original SDSS wide-field imager, the original and an upgraded multi-object fiber-fed optical spectrograph, a new near-infrared high-resolution spectrograph, and a novel optical interferometer. All of the data from SDSS-III are now made public. In particular, this paper describes Data Release 11 (DR11) including all data acquired through 2013 July, and Data Release 12 (DR12) adding data acquired through 2014 July (including all data included in previous data releases), marking the end of SDSS-III observing. Relative to our previous public release (DR10), DR12 adds one million new spectra of galaxies and quasars from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) over an additional 3000 deg2 of sky, more than triples the number of H-band spectra of stars as part of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), and includes repeated accurate radial velocity measurements of 5500 stars from the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS). The APOGEE outputs now include the measured abundances of 15 different elements for each star. In total, SDSS-III added 5200 deg2 of ugriz imaging; 155,520 spectra of 138,099 stars as part of the Sloan Exploration of Galactic Understanding and Evolution 2 (SEGUE-2) survey; 2,497,484 BOSS spectra of 1,372,737 galaxies, 294,512 quasars, and 247,216 stars over 9376 deg2; 618,080 APOGEE spectra of 156,593 stars; and 197,040 MARVELS spectra of 5513 stars. Since its first light in 1998, SDSS has imaged over 1/3 of the Celestial sphere in five bands and obtained over five million astronomical spectra. \ua9 2015. The American Astronomical Society
Detection and Characterization of Oscillating Red Giants: First Results from the TESS Satellite
Since the onset of the "space revolution" of high-precision high-cadence photometry, asteroseismology has been demonstrated as a powerful tool for informing Galactic archeology investigations. The launch of the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission has enabled seismic-based inferences to go full sky—providing a clear advantage for large ensemble studies of the different Milky Way components. Here we demonstrate its potential for investigating the Galaxy by carrying out the first asteroseismic ensemble study of red giant stars observed by TESS. We use a sample of 25 stars for which we measure their global asteroseimic observables and estimate their fundamental stellar properties, such as radius, mass, and age. Significant improvements are seen in the uncertainties of our estimates when combining seismic observables from TESS with astrometric measurements from the Gaia mission compared to when the seismology and astrometry are applied separately. Specifically, when combined we show that stellar radii can be determined to a precision of a few percent, masses to 5%-10%, and ages to the 20% level. This is comparable to the precision typically obtained using end-of-mission Kepler data
The Expected Stellar Populations in the Kepler and CoRoT Fields
Using the stellar population synthesis tool TRILEGAL, we discuss the expected
stellar populations in the Kepler and CoRoT fieldsComment: Proc. of the workshop "Asteroseismology of stellar populations in the
Milky Way" (Sesto, 22-26 July 2013), Astrophysics and Space Science
Proceedings, (eds. A. Miglio, L. Girardi, P. Eggenberger, J. Montalban