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Abstract Asteroseismology has been used extensively in recent years to study the interior structure and physical processes of main-sequence stars. We consider prospects for using pressure modes (p-modes) near the frequency of maximum oscillation power to probe the structure of the near-core layers of main-sequence stars with convective cores by constructing stellar model tracks. Within our mass range of interest, the inner turning point of p-modes as determined by the Jeffreys–Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (JWKB) approximation evolves in two distinct phases during the main sequence, implying a sudden loss of near-core sensitivity during the discontinuous transition between the two phases. However, we also employ non-JWKB asymptotic analysis to derive a contrasting set of expressions for the effects that these structural properties will have on the mode frequencies, which do not encode any such transition. We show analytically that a sufficiently near-core perturbation to the stellar structure results in nonoscillatory, degree-dependent perturbations to the star’s oscillation mode frequencies, contrasting with the case of an outer glitch. We also demonstrate numerically that these near-core acoustic glitches exhibit strong angular degree dependence, even at low degree, agreeing with the non-JWKB analysis, rather than the degree-independent oscillations that emerge from JWKB analyses. These properties have important implications for using p-modes to study near-core mixing processes for intermediate-mass stars on the main sequence, as well as for the interpretation of near-center acoustic glitches in other astrophysical configurations, such as red giants.
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Evolutionary and Observational Properties of Red Giant Acoustic Glitch Signatures
Abstract While solar-like oscillations in red giants have been observed at massive scales by the Kepler mission, few features of these oscillation mode frequencies, other than their global properties, have been exploited for stellar characterization. The signatures of acoustic glitches in mode frequencies have been used for studying main-sequence stars, but the validity of applying such techniques to evolved red giants, particularly pertaining to the inclusion of nonradial modes, has been less well examined. Making use of new theoretical developments, we characterize glitches using theπmodes associated with red giant stellar models, and use our procedure to examine for the first time how the properties of the Heiiacoustic glitch—specifically its amplitude and associated acoustic depth—vary over the course of evolution up the red giant branch, and with respect to other fundamental stellar properties. We find that the acoustic depths of these glitches, in conjunction with other spectroscopic information, discriminate between red giants in the first-ascent and core-helium-burning phases. We critically reexamine previous attempts to constrain acoustic glitches from nonradial (in particular dipole) modes in red giants. Finally, we apply our fitting procedure to Kepler data, to evaluate its robustness to noise and other observational systematics.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2205026
- PAR ID:
- 10406893
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 947
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 22
- Size(s):
- Article No. 22
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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