88 research outputs found
Seismic diagnostics for transport of angular momentum in stars 2. Interpreting observed rotational splittings of slowly-rotating red giant stars
Asteroseismology with the space-borne missions CoRoT and Kepler provides a
powerful mean of testing the modeling of transport processes in stars.
Rotational splittings are currently measured for a large number of red giant
stars and can provide stringent constraints on the rotation profiles. The aim
of this paper is to obtain a theoretical framework for understanding the
properties of the observed rotational splittings of red giant stars with slowly
rotating cores. This allows us to establish appropriate seismic diagnostics for
rotation of these evolved stars. Rotational splittings for stochastically
excited dipolar modes are computed adopting a first-order perturbative approach
for two benchmark models assuming slowly rotating cores. For red
giant stars with slowly rotating cores, we show that the variation of the
rotational splittings of modes with frequency depends only on the
large frequency separation, the g-mode period spacing, and the ratio of the
average envelope to core rotation rates (). This leds us to propose a
way to infer directly from the observations. This method is
validated using the Kepler red giant star KIC 5356201. Finally, we provide a
theoretical support for the use of a Lorentzian profile to measure the observed
splittings for red giant stars.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Seismic diagnostics for transport of angular momentum in stars 1. Rotational splittings from the PMS to the RGB
Rotational splittings are currently measured for several main sequence stars
and a large number of red giants with the space mission Kepler. This will
provide stringent constraints on rotation profiles. Our aim is to obtain
seismic constraints on the internal transport and surface loss of angular
momentum of oscillating solar-like stars. To this end, we study the evolution
of rotational splittings from the pre-main sequence to the red-giant branch for
stochastically excited oscillation modes. We modified the evolutionary code
CESAM2K to take rotationally induced transport in radiative zones into account.
Linear rotational splittings were computed for a sequence of
models. Rotation profiles were derived from our evolutionary models and
eigenfunctions from linear adiabatic oscillation calculations. We find that
transport by meridional circulation and shear turbulence yields far too high a
core rotation rate for red-giant models compared with recent seismic
observations. We discuss several uncertainties in the physical description of
stars that could have an impact on the rotation profiles. For instance, we find
that the Goldreich-Schubert-Fricke instability does not extract enough angular
momentum from the core to account for the discrepancy. In contrast, an increase
of the horizontal turbulent viscosity by 2 orders of magnitude is able to
significantly decrease the central rotation rate on the red-giant branch. Our
results indicate that it is possible that the prescription for the horizontal
turbulent viscosity largely underestimates its actual value or else a mechanism
not included in current stellar models of low mass stars is needed to slow down
the rotation in the radiative core of red-giant stars.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Spin down of the core rotation in red giants
The space mission Kepler provides us with long and uninterrupted photometric
time series of red giants. We are now able to probe the rotational behaviour in
their deep interiors using the observations of mixed modes. We aim to measure
the rotational splittings in red giants and to derive scaling relations for
rotation related to seismic and fundamental stellar parameters. We have
developed a dedicated method for automated measurements of the rotational
splittings in a large number of red giants. Ensemble asteroseismology, namely
the examination of a large number of red giants at different stages of their
evolution, allows us to derive global information on stellar evolution. We have
measured rotational splittings in a sample of about 300 red giants. We have
also shown that these splittings are dominated by the core rotation. Under the
assumption that a linear analysis can provide the rotational splitting, we
observe a small increase of the core rotation of stars ascending the red giant
branch. Alternatively, an important slow down is observed for red-clump stars
compared to the red giant branch. We also show that, at fixed stellar radius,
the specific angular momentum increases with increasing stellar mass. Ensemble
asteroseismology indicates what has been indirectly suspected for a while: our
interpretation of the observed rotational splittings leads to the conclusion
that the mean core rotation significantly slows down during the red giant
phase. The slow-down occurs in the last stages of the red giant branch. This
spinning down explains, for instance, the long rotation periods measured in
white dwarfsComment: Accepted in A&
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