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Mixed modes seen in evolved stars carry information on their deeper layers that can place stringent constraints on their physics and on their global properties (mass, age, etc.). In this study, we present a method to identify and measure all oscillatory mode characteristics (frequency, height, width). Analyzing four subgiant stars, we present the first measure of the effect of the degree of mixture on the l = 1 mixed mode characteristics. We also show that some stars have measurable l = 2 mixed modes and discuss the interest of their measure to constrain the deeper layers of stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results on the obliquity of exoplanet host stars—the angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis—provide important diagnostic information for theories describing planetary formation. Here we present the first application of asteroseismology to the problem of stellar obliquity determination in systems with transiting planets and Sun-like host stars.We consider two systems observed by theNASA Kepler mission which have multiple transiting small (super-Earth sized) planets: the previously reported Kepler-50 and a new system, Kepler-65, whose planets we validate in this paper. Both stars show rich spectra of solar-like oscillations. From the asteroseismic analysis we find that each host has its rotation axis nearly perpendicular to the line of sight with the sines of the angles constrained at the 1σ level to lie above 0.97 and 0.91, respectively. We use statistical arguments to show that coplanar orbits are favored in both systems, and that the orientations of the planetary orbits and the stellar rotation axis are correlated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asteroseismology with the Kepler space telescope is providing not only an improved characterization of exoplanets and their host stars, but also a new window on stellar structure and evolution for the large sample of solar-type stars in the field. We perform a uniform analysis of 22 of the brightest asteroseismic targets with the highest signal-to- noise ratio observed for 1 month each during the first year of the mission, and we quantify the precision and relative accuracy of asteroseismic determinations of the stellar radius, mass, and age that are possible using various methods. We present the properties of each star in the sample derived from an automated analysis of the individual oscillation frequencies and other observational constraints using the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal (AMP), and we compare them to the results of model-grid-based methods that fit the global oscillation properties. We find that fitting the individual frequencies typically yields asteroseismic radii and masses to ~1% precision, and ages to ~2.5% precision (respectively, 2, 5, and 8 times better than fitting the global oscillation properties). The absolute level of agreement between the results from different approaches is also encouraging, with model-grid-based methods yielding slightly smaller estimates of the radius and mass and slightly older values for the stellar age relative to AMP, which computes a large number of dedicated models for each star. The sample of targets for which this type of analysis is possible will grow as longer data sets are obtained during the remainder of the mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have analyzed solar-like oscillations in ~1700 stars observed by the Kepler Mission, spanning from the main sequence to the red clump. Using evolutionary models, we test asteroseismic scaling relations for the frequency of maximum power (vmax), the large frequency separation (Δv), and oscillation amplitudes. We show that the difference of the Δv-vmax relation for unevolved and evolved stars can be explained by different distributions in effective temperature and stellar mass, in agreement with what is expected from scaling relations. For oscillation amplitudes, we show that neither (L/M)s scaling nor the revised scaling relation by Kjeldsen & Bedding is accurate for red-giant stars, and demonstrate that a revised scaling relation with a separate luminosity-mass dependence can be used to calculate amplitudes from the main sequence to red giants to a precision of ~25%. The residuals show an offset particularly for unevolved stars, suggesting that an additional physical dependency is necessary to fully reproduce the observed amplitudes. We investigate correlations between amplitudes and stellar activity, and find evidence that the effect of amplitude suppression is most pronounced for subgiant stars. Finally, we test the location of the cool edge of the instability strip in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram using solar-like oscillations and find the detections in the hottest stars compatible with a domain of hybrid stochastically excited and opacity driven pulsation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have analyzed oscillations of the red giant star HD 186355 observed by the NASA Kepler satellite. The data consist of the first five quarters of science operations of Kepler, which cover about 13 months. The high-precision time-series data allow us to accurately extract the oscillation frequencies from the power spectrum. We find that the frequency of the maximum oscillation power, vmax, and the mean large frequency separation, Δv, are around 106 and 9.4 µHz, respectively. A regular pattern of radial and non-radial oscillation modes is identified by stacking the power spectra in an echelle diagram. We use the scaling relations of Δv and vmax to estimate the preliminary asteroseismic mass, which is confirmed with the modeling result (M = 1.45 ± 0.05 M⊙) using the Yale Rotating stellar Evolution Code (YREC7). In addition, we constrain the effective temperature, luminosity, and radius from comparisons between observational constraints and models. A number of mixed 1 = 1 modes are also detected and taken into account in our model comparisons. We find a mean observational period spacing for these mixed modes of about 58 s, suggesting that this red giant branch star is in the shell hydrogen-burning phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The granulation pattern that we observe on the surface of the Sun is due to hot plasma rising to the photosphere where it cools down and descends back into the interior at the edges of granules. This is the visible manifestation of convection taking place in the outer part of the solar convection zone. Because red giants have deeper convection zones than the Sun, we cannot a priori assume that their granulation is a scaled version of solar granulation. Until now, neither observations nor one-dimensional analytical convection models could put constraints on granulation in red giants. With asteroseismology, this study can now be performed. We analyze ~1000 red giants that have been observed by Kepler during 13 months. We fit the power spectra with Harvey-like profiles to retrieve the characteristics of the granulation (timescale τgran and power Pgran). We search for a correlation between these parameters and the global acoustic-mode parameter (the position of maximum power, vmax) as well as with stellar parameters (mass, radius, surface gravity (log g), and effective temperature (Teff)). We show that τeff Due to image rights restrictions, multiple line equation(s) cannot be graphically displayed., and Pgran Due to image rights restrictions, multiple line equation(s) cannot be graphically displayed., which is consistent with the theoretical predictions. We find that the granulation timescales of stars that belong to the red clump have similar values while the timescales of stars in the red giant branch are spread in a wider range. Finally, we show that realistic three-dimensional simulations of the surface convection in stars, spanning the (Teff, log g) range of our sample of red giants, match the Kepler observations well in terms of trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the photometric short-cadence data obtained with the Kepler mission during the first 8 months of observations of two solar-type stars of spectral types G and F: KIC 11395018 and KIC 11234888, respectively, the latter having a lower signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) compared with the former. We estimate global parameters of the acoustic (p) modes such as the average large and small frequency separations, the frequency of the maximum of the p-mode envelope, and the average line width of the acoustic modes. We were able to identify and to measure 22 p-mode frequencies for the first star and 16 for the second one even though the S/N of these stars are rather low. We also derive some information about the stellar rotation periods from the analyses of the low-frequency parts of the power spectral densities. A model-independent estimation of the mean density, mass, and radius is obtained using the scaling laws. We emphasize the importance of continued observations for the stars with low S/N for an improved characterization of the oscillation modes. Our results offer a preview of what will be possible for many stars with the long data sets obtained during the remainder of the mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chemical composition of stars hosting small exoplanets (with radii less than four Earth radii) appears to be more diverse than that of gas-giant hosts, which tend to be metal-rich. This implies that small, including Earth-size, planets may have readily formed at earlier epochs in the universe's history when metals were more scarce. We report Kepler spacecraft observations of Kepler-444, a metal-poor Sun-like star from the old population of the Galactic thick disk and the host to a compact system of five transiting planets with sizes between those of Mercury and Venus. We validate this system as a true five-planet system orbiting the target star and provide a detailed characterization of its planetary and orbital parameters based on an analysis of the transit photometry. Kepler-444 is the densest star with detected solar-like oscillations. We use asteroseismology to directly measure a precise age of 11.2 ± 1.0 Gyr for the host star, indicating that Kepler-444 formed when the universe was less than 20% of its current age and making it the oldest known system of terrestrial-size planets. We thus show that Earth-size planets have formed throughout most of the universe's 13.8 billion year history, leaving open the possibility for the existence of ancient life in the Galaxy. The age of Kepler-444 not only suggests that thick-disk stars were among the hosts to the first Galactic planets, but may also help to pinpoint the beginning of the era of planet formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel method for estimating lower-limit surface gravities (log g) of Kepler targets whose data do not allow the detection of solar-like oscillations. The method is tested using an ensemble of solar-type stars observed in the context of the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium. We then proceed to estimate lower-limit log g for a cohort of Kepler solar-type planet-candidate host stars with no detected oscillations. Limits on fundamental stellar properties, as provided by this work, are likely to be useful in the characterization of the corresponding candidate planetary systems. Furthermore, an important byproduct of the current work is the confirmation that amplitudes of solar-like oscillations are suppressed in stars with increased levels of surface magnetic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present results of a long-baseline interferometry campaign using the PAVO beam combiner at the CHARA Array to measure the angular sizes of five main-sequence stars, one subgiant and four red giant stars for which solar-like oscillations have been detected by either Kepler or CoRoT. By combining interferometric angular diameters, Hipparcos parallaxes, asteroseismic densities, bolometric fluxes, and high-resolution spectroscopy, we derive a full set of near-model-independent fundamental properties for the sample. We first use these properties to test asteroseismic scaling relations for the frequency of maximum power (νmax) and the large frequency separation (Δν). We find excellent agreement within the observational uncertainties, and empirically show that simple estimates of asteroseismic radii for main-sequence stars are accurate to ≲ 4%. We furthermore find good agreement of our measured effective temperatures with spectroscopic and photometric estimates with mean deviations for stars between Teff = 4600-6200 K of –22 ± 32 K (with a scatter of 97 K) and –58 ± 31 K (with a scatter of 93 K), respectively. Finally, we present a first comparison with evolutionary models, and find differences between observed and theoretical properties for the metal-rich main-sequence star HD 173701. We conclude that the constraints presented in this study will have strong potential for testing stellar model physics, in particular when combined with detailed modeling of individual oscillation frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately determining the properties of stars is of prime importance for characterizing stellar populations in our Galaxy. The field of asteroseismology has been thought to be particularly successful in such an endeavor for stars in different evolutionary stages. However, to fully exploit its potential, robust methods for estimating stellar parameters are required and independent verification of the results is mandatory. With this purpose, we present a new technique to obtain stellar properties by coupling asteroseismic analysis with the InfraRed Flux Method. By using two global seismic observables and multi-band photometry, the technique allows us to obtain masses, radii, effective temperatures, bolometric fluxes, and hence distances for field stars in a self-consistent manner. We apply our method to 22 solar-like oscillators in the Kepler short-cadence sample, that have accurate Hipparcos parallaxes. Our distance determinations agree to better than 5%, while measurements of spectroscopic effective temperatures and interferometric radii also validate our results. We briefly discuss the potential of our technique for stellar population analysis and models of Galactic Chemical Evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]