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Abstract Despite a growing sample of precisely measured stellar rotation periods and ages, the strength of magnetic braking and the degree of departure from standard (Skumanich-like) spin-down have remained persistent questions, particularly for stars more evolved than the Sun. Rotation periods can be measured for stars older than the Sun by leveraging asteroseismology, enabling models to be tested against a larger sample of old field stars. Because asteroseismic measurements of rotation do not depend on starspot modulation, they avoid potential biases introduced by the need for a stellar dynamo to drive starspot production. Using a neural network trained on a grid of stellar evolution models and a hierarchical model-fitting approach, we constrain the onset of weakened magnetic braking (WMB). We find that a sample of stars with asteroseismically measured rotation periods and ages is consistent with models that depart from standard spin-down prior to reaching the evolutionary stage of the Sun. We test our approach using neural networks trained on model grids produced by separate stellar evolution codes with differing physical assumptions and find that the choices of grid physics can influence the inferred properties of the braking law. We identify the normalized critical Rossby number Ro_crit/Ro_⊙= 0.91 ± 0.03 as the threshold for the departure from standard rotational evolution. This suggests that WMB poses challenges to gyrochronology for roughly half of the main-sequence lifetime of Sun-like stars. 

ABSTRACT We revisit the tidally excited oscillations (TEOs) in the A-type main-sequence eccentric binary KOI-54, the prototype of heartbeat stars. Although the linear tidal response of the star is a series of orbital-harmonic frequencies which are not stellar eigenfrequencies, we show that the non-linearly excited non-orbital-harmonic TEOs are eigenmodes. By carefully choosing the modes which satisfy the mode-coupling selection rules, a period spacing (ΔP) pattern of quadrupole gravity modes (ΔP ≈ 2520–2535 s) can be discerned in the Fourier spectrum, with a detection significance level of $$99.9{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$. The inferred period spacing value agrees remarkably well with the theoretical l = 2, m = 0 g modes from a stellar model with the measured mass, radius, and effective temperature. We also find that the two largest-amplitude TEOs at N = 90, 91 harmonics are very close to resonance with l = 2, m = 0 eigenmodes, and likely come from different stars. Previous works on tidal oscillations primarily focus on the modelling of TEO amplitudes and phases, the high sensitivity of TEO amplitude to the frequency detuning (tidal forcing frequency minus the closest stellar eigenfrequency) requires extremely dense grids of stellar models and prevents us from constraining the stellar physical parameters easily. This work, however, opens the window of real tidal asteroseismology by using the eigenfrequencies of the star inferred from the non-linear TEOs and possibly very-close-to-resonance linear TEOs. Our seismic modelling of these identified eigen g-modes shows that the best-matching stellar models have (M ≈ 2.20, 2.35 M⊙) and super-solar metallicity, in good agreement with previous measurements. 

Abstract We present design considerations for the Transiting Exosatellites, Moons, and Planets in Orion (TEMPO) Survey with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. This proposed 30 days survey is designed to detect a population of transiting extrasolar satellites, moons, and planets in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). The young (1–3 Myr), densely populated ONC harbors about a thousand bright brown dwarfs (BDs) and free-floating planetary-mass objects (FFPs). TEMPO offers sufficient photometric precision to monitor FFPs with M >1 M J for transiting satellites. The survey is also capable of detecting FFPs down to sub-Saturn masses via direct imaging, although follow-up confirmation will be challenging. TEMPO yield estimates include 14 (3–22) exomoons/satellites transiting FFPs and 54 (8–100) satellites transiting BDs. Of this population, approximately 50% of companions would be “super-Titans” (Titan to Earth mass). Yield estimates also include approximately 150 exoplanets transiting young Orion stars, of which >50% will orbit mid-to-late M dwarfs. TEMPO would provide the first census demographics of small exosatellites orbiting FFPs and BDs, while simultaneously offering insights into exoplanet evolution at the earliest stages. This detected exosatellite population is likely to be markedly different from the current census of exoplanets with similar masses (e.g., Earth-mass exosatellites that still possess H/He envelopes). Although our yield estimates are highly uncertain, as there are no known exoplanets or exomoons analogous to these satellites, the TEMPO survey would test the prevailing theories of exosatellite formation and evolution, which limit the certainty surrounding detection yields. 

ABSTRACT The first bright objects to form in the Universe might not have been ‘ordinary’ fusion-powered stars, but ‘dark stars’ (DSs) powered by the annihilation of dark matter (DM) in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). If discovered, DSs can provide a unique laboratory to test DM models. DSs are born with a mass of the order of M⊙ and may grow to a few million solar masses; in this work we investigate the properties of early DSs with masses up to $$\sim \! 1000 \, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$$, fueled by WIMPS weighing 100 GeV. We improve the previous implementation of the DM energy source into the stellar evolution code mesa. We show that the growth of DSs is not limited by astrophysical effects: DSs up to $$\sim \!1000 \, \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }$$ exhibit no dynamical instabilities; DSs are not subject to mass-loss driven by super-Eddington winds. We test the assumption of previous work that the injected energy per WIMP annihilation is constant throughout the star; relaxing this assumption does not change the properties of the DSs. Furthermore, we study DS pulsations, for the first time investigating non-adiabatic pulsation modes, using the linear pulsation code gyre. We find that acoustic modes in DSs of masses smaller than $$\sim \! 200 \, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$$ are excited by the κ − γ and γ mechanism in layers where hydrogen or helium is (partially) ionized. Moreover, we show that the mass-loss rates potentially induced by pulsations are negligible compared to the accretion rates. 

ABSTRACT Strongly magnetic B-type stars with moderately rapid rotation form ‘centrifugal magnetospheres’ (CMs) from the magnetic trapping of stellar wind material in a region above the Kepler co-rotation radius. A long-standing question is whether the eventual loss of such trapped material occurs from gradual drift and/or diffusive leakage, or through sporadic ‘centrifugal breakout’ (CBO) events, wherein magnetic tension can no longer contain the built-up mass. We argue here that recent empirical results for Balmer-α emission from such B-star CMs strongly favour the CBO mechanism. Most notably, the fact that the onset of such emission depends mainly on the field strength at the Kepler radius, and is largely independent of the stellar luminosity, strongly disfavours any drift/diffusion process, for which the net mass balance would depend on the luminosity-dependent wind feeding rate. In contrast, we show that in a CBO model, the maximum confined mass in the magnetosphere is independent of this wind feeding rate and has a dependence on field strength and Kepler radius that naturally explains the empirical scalings for the onset of H α emission, its associated equivalent width, and even its line profile shapes. However, the general lack of observed Balmer emission in late-B and A-type stars could still be attributed to a residual level of diffusive or drift leakage that does not allow their much weaker winds to fill their CMs to the breakout level needed for such emission; alternatively, this might result from a transition to a metal–ion wind that lacks the requisite hydrogen.