DIAMONDS: a new Bayesian Nested Sampling tool. Application to Peak Bagging of solar-like oscillations

To exploit the full potential of Kepler light curves, sophisticated and robust analysis tools are now required more than ever. Characterizing single stars with an unprecedented level of accuracy and subsequently analyzing stellar populations in detail are fundamental to further constrain stellar structure and evolutionary models. We developed a new code, termed Diamonds, for Bayesian parameter estimation and model comparison by means of the nested sampling Monte Carlo (NSMC) algorithm, an efficient and powerful method very suitable for high-dimensional and multi-modal problems. A detailed description of the features implemented in the code is given with a focus on the novelties and differences with respect to other existing methods based on NSMC. Diamonds is then tested on the bright F8 V star KIC~9139163, a challenging target for peak-bagging analysis due to its large number of oscillation peaks observed, which are coupled to the blending that occurs between $\ell=2,0$ peaks, and the strong stellar background signal. We further strain the performance of the approach by adopting a 1147.5 days-long Kepler light curve. The Diamonds code is able to provide robust results for the peak-bagging analysis of KIC~9139163. We test the detection of different astrophysical backgrounds in the star and provide a criterion based on the Bayesian evidence for assessing the peak significance of the detected oscillations in detail. We present results for 59 individual oscillation frequencies, amplitudes and linewidths and provide a detailed comparison to the existing values in the literature. Lastly, we successfully demonstrate an innovative approach to peak bagging that exploits the capability of Diamonds to sample multi-modal distributions, which is of great potential for possible future automatization of the analysis technique.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in A&

Peak Bagging of red giant stars observed by Kepler: first results with a new method based on Bayesian nested sampling

The peak bagging analysis, namely the fitting and identification of single oscillation modes in stars' power spectra, coupled to the very high-quality light curves of red giant stars observed by Kepler, can play a crucial role for studying stellar oscillations of different flavor with an unprecedented level of detail. A thorough study of stellar oscillations would thus allow for deeper testing of stellar structure models and new insights in stellar evolution theory. However, peak bagging inferences are in general very challenging problems due to the large number of observed oscillation modes, hence of free parameters that can be involved in the fitting models. Effciency and robustness in performing the analysis is what may be needed to proceed further. For this purpose, we developed a new code implementing the Nested Sampling Monte Carlo (NSMC) algorithm, a powerful statistical method well suited for Bayesian analyses of complex problems. In this talk we show the peak bagging of a sample of high signal-to-noise red giant stars by exploiting recent Kepler datasets and a new criterion for the detection of an oscillation mode based on the computation of the Bayesian evidence. Preliminary results for frequencies and lifetimes for single oscillation modes, together with acoustic glitches, are therefore presented.Comment: Conference Proceeding - CoRoT3-KASC7 The Space Photometry Revolution, Toulouse, France, July 6-11 2014, 4 pages, 3 figure

The Metallicity Gradient of the Old Galactic Bulge Population

Understanding the structure, formation and evolution of the Galactic Bulge requires the proper determination of spatial metallicity gradients in both the radial and vertical directions. RR Lyrae pulsators, known to be excellent distance indicators, may hold the key to determining these gradients. Jurcsik & Kovacs (1996) has shown that RR Lyrae light curves and the phase difference of their Fourier decomposition, {\phi}31, can be used to estimate photometric metallicities. The existence of galactic bulge metallicity gradients is a currently debated topic that would help pinpoint the Galaxy's formation and evolution. A recent study of the OGLE-III Galactic Bulge RR Lyrae Population by Pietrukowicz et al. (2012) suggests that the spatial distribution is uniform. We investigate how small a gradient would be detectable within the current S/N levels of the present data set, given the random and systematic errors associated with the derivation of a photometric metallicity versus spatial position relationship.Comment: 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

Numerical simulation of long and slender cylinders vibrating in axial flow applied to the Myrrha reactor

Flow induced vibrations are an important concern in the design of nuclear reactors. One of the possible designs of the 4th generation nuclear reactors is a lead-cooled fast reactor of which MYYRHA is a prototype. The combination of high liquid density, flow velocity, low pitch-to-diameter ratio and the absence of grid spacers makes this design prone to flow induced vibrations. Although most vibrations are induced by cross flow, axial flow around this slender structure could also induce vibrations. In order to gain insight in the possible vibrations (either induced by cross flow, axial flow or an external excitation) this study examines the change of eigenmodes and frequencies of a bare rod due to the lead-bismuth flow. To do so partitioned simulations of the fluid structure interaction are performed in which the structure is initially perturbed according to an in-air eigenmode

Astrophysical properties of 15062 Gaia DR3 gravity-mode pulsators: pulsation amplitudes, rotation, and spectral line broadening

Gravito-inertial asteroseismology saw its birth thanks to high-precision CoRoT and Kepler space photometric light curves. So far, it gave rise to the internal rotation frequency of a few hundred intermediate-mass stars, yet only several tens of these have been weighed, sized, and age-dated with high precision from asteroseismic modelling. We aim to increase the sample of optimal targets for future gravito-inertial asteroseismology by assessing the properties of 15062 newly found Gaia DR3 gravity-mode pulsators. We also wish to investigate if there is any connection between their fundamental parameters and dominant mode on the one hand, and their spectral line broadening measured by Gaia on the other hand. After re-classifying about 22% of the F-type gravity-mode pulsators as B-type according to their effective temperature, we construct histograms of the fundamental parameters and mode properties of the 15062 new Gaia DR3 pulsators. We compare these histograms with those of 63 Kepler bona fide class members. We fit errors-in-variables regression models to couple the effective temperature, luminosity, gravity, and oscillation properties to the two Gaia DR3 parameters capturing spectral line broadening for a fraction of the pulsators. We find that the selected 15062 gravity-mode pulsators have properties fully in line with those of their well-known Kepler analogues, revealing that Gaia has a role to play in asteroseismology. The dominant g-mode frequency is a significant predictor of the spectral line broadening for the class members having this quantity measured. We show that the Gaia vbroad parameter captures the joint effect of time-independent intrinsic and rotational line broadening and time-dependent tangential pulsational broadening. Gaia was not desiged to detect non-radial oscillations, yet its homogeneous data treatment allow us to identify many new gravity-mode pulsators.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 10 tables. Manuscript accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Two datafiles will be made available via CDS; they can already be requested from the main autho