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Fuelled by space photometry, asteroseismology is vastly benefitting the study of cool main-sequence stars, which exhibit convection-driven solar-like oscillations. Even so, the tiny oscillation amplitudes in K dwarfs continue to pose a challenge to space-based asteroseismology. A viable alternative is offered by the lower stellar noise over the oscillation timescales in Doppler observations. In this letter we present the definite detection of solar-like oscillations in the bright K5 dwarf $\epsilon$ Indi based on time-intensive observations collected with the ESPRESSO spectrograph at the VLT, thus making it the coolest seismic dwarf ever observed. We measured the frequencies of a total of 19 modes of degree $\ell=0$--2 along with $\nu_{\rm max}=5305\pm176\:{\rm \mu Hz}$ and $\Delta\nu=201.25\pm0.16\:{\rm \mu Hz}$. The peak amplitude of radial modes is $2.6\pm0.5\:{\rm cm\,s^{-1}}$, or a mere ${\sim} 14\%$ of the solar value. Measured mode amplitudes are ${\sim} 2$ times lower than predicted from a nominal $L/M$ scaling relation and favour a scaling closer to $(L/M)^{1.5}$ below ${\sim} 5500\:{\rm K}$, carrying important implications for our understanding of the coupling efficiency between pulsations and near-surface convection in K dwarfs. This detection conclusively shows that precise asteroseismology of cool dwarfs is possible down to at least the mid-K regime using next-generation spectrographs on large-aperture telescopes, effectively opening up a new domain in observational asteroseismology., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters

The photometric time series of solar-like stars can exhibit rotational modulation due to active regions co-rotating with the stellar surface, allowing us to constrain stellar rotation and magnetic activity. In this work we investigate the behavior, particularly the variability, of the photometric magnetic activity of Kepler solar-like stars and compare it with that of the Sun. We adopted the photometric magnetic activity proxy Sph, which was computed with a cadence of 5 x the rotation period, Prot. The average Sph was taken as the mean activity level, and the standard deviation was taken as a measure of the temporal variation of the magnetic activity over the observations. We also analyzed Sun-as-a-star photometric data from VIRGO. Sun-like stars were selected from a very narrow parameter space around the solar properties. We also looked into KIC 8006161 (HD 173701), an active metal-rich G dwarf, and we compared its magnetic activity to that of stars with similar stellar parameters. We find that the amplitude of Sph variability is strongly correlated with its mean value, independent of spectral type. An equivalent relationship has been found for ground-based observations of chromospheric activity emission and magnetic field strength, but in this work we show that photometric Kepler data also present the same behavior. While, depending on the cycle phase, the Sun is among the less active stars, we find that the solar Sph properties are consistent with those observed in Kepler Sun-like stars. KIC 8006161 is, however, among the most active of its peers, which tend to be metal-rich. This results from an underlying relationship between Prot and metallicity and supports the following interpretation of the magnetic activity of KIC 8006161: its strong activity is a consequence of its high metallicity, which affects the depth of the convection zone and, consequently, the efficiency of the dynamo., Comment: Published in A&A; 12 pages including 11 figures and 3 tables (main text); 10 additional pages including 17 figures and 5 tables (appendix)

In 2015 we started the XMM-Newton monitoring of the young solar-like star Epsilon Eridani (440 Myr), one of the youngest solar-like stars with a known chromospheric CaII cycle. By analyzing the most recent Mount Wilson S-index CaII data of this star, we found that the chromospheric cycle lasts 2.92 +/- 0.02 yr, in agreement with past results. From the long-term X-ray lightcurve, we find clear and systematic X-ray variability of our target, consistent with the chromospheric CaII cycle. The average X-ray luminosity results to be 2 x 10^28 erg/s, with an amplitude that is only a factor 2 throughout the cycle. We apply a new method to describe the evolution of the coronal emission measure distribution of Epsilon Eridani in terms of solar magnetic structures: active regions, cores of active regions and flares covering the stellar surface at varying filling fractions. Combinations of these magnetic structures can describe the observed X-ray emission measure of Epsilon Eridani only if the solar flare emission measure distribution is restricted to events in the decay phase. The interpretation is that flares in the corona of Epsilon Eridani last longer than their solar counterparts. We ascribe this to the lower metallicity of Epsilon Eridani. Our analysis revealed also that the X-ray cycle of Epsilon Eridani is strongly dominated by cores of active regions. The coverage fraction of cores throughout the cycle changes by the same factor as the X-ray luminosity. The maxima of the cycle are characterized by a high percentage of covering fraction of the flares, consistent with the fact that flaring events are seen in the corresponding short-term X-ray lightcurves predominately at the cycle maxima. The high X-ray emission throughout the cycle of Epsilon Eridani is thus explained by the high percentage of magnetic structures on its surface., Comment: 21 pages, 27 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics. Abstract shortened for the arXiv listing

Brightness variations due to dark spots on the stellar surface encode information about stellar surface rotation and magnetic activity. In this work, we analyze the Kepler long-cadence data of 26,521 main-sequence stars of spectral types M and K in order to measure their surface rotation and photometric activity level. Rotation-period estimates are obtained by the combination of a wavelet analysis and autocorrelation function of the light curves. Reliable rotation estimates are determined by comparing the results from the different rotation diagnostics and four data sets. We also measure the photometric activity proxy Sph using the amplitude of the flux variations on an appropriate timescale. We report rotation periods and photometric activity proxies for about 60 per cent of the sample, including 4,431 targets for which McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014) did not report a rotation period. For the common targets with rotation estimates in this study and in McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014), our rotation periods agree within 99 per cent. In this work, we also identify potential polluters, such as misclassified red giants and classical pulsator candidates. Within the parameter range we study, there is a mild tendency for hotter stars to have shorter rotation periods. The photometric activity proxy spans a wider range of values with increasing effective temperature. The rotation period and photometric activity proxy are also related, with Sph being larger for fast rotators. Similar to McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014), we find a bimodal distribution of rotation periods., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS, 24 pages, 20 figures

In the Sun, the properties of acoustic modes are sensitive to changes in the magnetic activity. In particular, mode frequencies are observed to increase with increasing activity level. Thanks to CoRoT and Kepler, such variations have been found in other solar-type stars and encode information on the activity-related changes in their interiors. Thus, the unprecedented long-term Kepler photometric observations provide a unique opportunity to study stellar activity through asteroseismology. The goal of this work is to investigate the dependencies of the observed mode frequency variations on the stellar parameters and whether those are consistent with an activity-related origin. We select the solar-type oscillators with highest signal-to-noise ratio, in total 75 targets. Using the temporal frequency variations determined in Santos et al. (2018), we study the relation between those variations and the fundamental stellar properties. We also compare the observed frequency shifts with chromospheric and photometric activity indexes, which are only available for a subset of the sample. We find that frequency shifts increase with increasing chromospheric activity, which is consistent with an activity-related origin of the observed frequency shifts. Frequency shifts are also found to increase with effective temperature, which is in agreement with the theoretical predictions for the activity-related frequency shifts by Metcalfe et al. (2007). Frequency shifts are largest for fast rotating and young stars, which is consistent with those being more active than slower rotators and older stars. Finally, we find evidence for frequency shifts increasing with stellar metallicity., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 13 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables

The periods of rotation and activity cycles are among the most important properties of the magnetic dynamo thought to be operating in late-type, main-sequence stars. In this paper, we present a S$_{\rm{MWO}}$-index time series composed from different data sources for the solar-like star HD 140538 and derive a period of 3.88$\pm$0.02 yr for its activity cycle. Furthermore, we analyse the high-cadence, seasonal S$_{\rm{MWO}}$ data taken with the TIGRE telescope and find a rotational period of 20.71$\pm$0.32 days. In addition, we estimate the stellar age of HD 140538 as 3.7 Gyrs via a matching evolutionary track. This is slightly older than the ages obtained from gyrochronology based on the above rotation period, as well as the activity-age relation. These results, together with its stellar parameters that are very similar to a younger Sun, make HD 140538 a relevant case study for our understanding of solar activity and its evolution with time., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

By combining ground-based spectrographic observations of variability in the chromospheric emission from Sun-like stars with the variability seen in their eigenmode frequencies, it is possible to relate the changes observed at the surfaces of these stars to the changes taking place in the interior. By further comparing this variability to changes in the relative flux from the stars, one can obtain an expression for how these activity indicators relate to the energy output from the stars. Such studies become very pertinent when the variability can be related to stellar cycles as they can then be used to improve our understanding of the solar cycle and its effect on the energy output from the Sun. Here we present observations of chromospheric emission in 20 Sun-like stars obtained over the course of the nominal 4-year Kepler mission. Even though 4 years is too short to detect stellar equivalents of the 11-year solar cycle, observations from the Kepler mission can still be used to analyse the variability of the different activity indicators thereby obtaining information of the physical mechanism generating the variability. The analysis reveals no strong correlation between the different activity indicators, except in very few cases. We suggest that this is due to the sparse sampling of our ground-based observations on the one hand and that we are likely not tracing cyclic variability on the other hand. We also discuss how to improve the situation., Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the target list of solar-type stars to be observed in short-cadence (2-min) for asteroseismology by the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) during its 2-year nominal survey mission. The solar-like Asteroseismic Target List (ATL) is comprised of bright, cool main-sequence and subgiant stars and forms part of the larger target list of the TESS Asteroseismic Science Consortium (TASC). The ATL uses Gaia DR2 and the Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) to derive fundamental stellar properties, calculate detection probabilities and produce a rank-ordered target list. We provide a detailed description of how the ATL was produced and calculate expected yields for solar-like oscillators based on the nominal photometric performance by TESS. We also provide publicly available source code which can be used to reproduce the ATL, thereby enabling comparisons of asteroseismic results from TESS with predictions from synthetic stellar populations., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

Finding solar-analog stars with fundamental properties as close as possible to the Sun and studying the characteristics of their surface magnetic activity is a very promising way to understand the solar variability and its associated dynamo process. However, the identification of solar-analog stars depends on the accuracy of the estimated stellar parameters. Thanks to the photometric CoROT and Kepler space missions, the addition of asteroseismic data was proven to provide the most accurate fundamental properties that can be derived from stellar modeling today. Here, we present our latest results on the solar-stellar connection by studying 18 solar analogs that we identified among the Kepler seismic sample (Salabert et al., 2016a). We measured their magnetic activity properties using the observations collected by the Kepler satellite and the ground-based, high-resolution HERMES spectrograph. The photospheric (Sph) and chromospheric (S) magnetic activity proxies of these seismic solar analogs are compared in relation to the solar activity. We show that the activity of the Sun is comparable to the activity of the seismic solar analogs, within the maximum-to-minimum temporal variations of the 11-year solar activity cycle. Furthermore, we report on the discovery of temporal variability in the acoustic frequencies of the young (1 Gyr-old) solar analog KIC10644253 with a modulation of about 1.5 years, which agrees with the derived photospheric activity Sph (Salabert et al, 2016b). It could be the signature of the short-period modulation, or quasi-biennal oscillation, of its magnetic activity as observed in the Sun and in the 1-Gyr-old solar analog HD30495. In addition, the lithium abundance and the chromospheric activity estimated from HERMES confirms that KIC10644253 is a young and more active star than the Sun., Comment: Proceedings from the splinter session "Variability of Solar/Stellar Magnetic Activity" at the 19th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun, 06-10 June 2016, Uppsala, Sweden

Binary star systems are important for understanding stellar structure and evolution, and are especially useful when oscillations can be detected and analysed with asteroseismology. However, only four systems are known in which solar-like oscillations are detected in both components. Here, we analyse the fifth such system, HD 176465, which was observed by Kepler. We carefully analysed the system's power spectrum to measure individual mode frequencies, adapting our methods where necessary to accommodate the fact that both stars oscillate in a similar frequency range. We also modelled the two stars independently by fitting stellar models to the frequencies and complementary parameters. We are able to cleanly separate the oscillation modes in both systems. The stellar models produce compatible ages and initial compositions for the stars, as is expected from their common and contemporaneous origin. Combining the individual ages, the system is about 3.0$\pm$0.5 Gyr old. The two components of HD 176465 are young physically-similar oscillating solar analogues, the first such system to be found, and provide important constraints for stellar evolution and asteroseismology., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 16 pages, 10 figures and 8 tables

We identify a set of 18 solar analogs among the seismic sample of solar-like stars observed by the Kepler satellite rotating between 10 and 40 days. This set is constructed using the asteroseismic stellar properties derived using either the global oscillation properties or the individual acoustic frequencies. We measure the magnetic activity properties of these stars using observations collected by the photometric Kepler satellite and by the ground-based, high-resolution Hermes spectrograph mounted on the Mercator telescope. The photospheric (Sph) and chromospheric (S index) magnetic activity levels of these seismic solar analogs are estimated and compared in relation to the solar activity. We show that the activity of the Sun is comparable to the activity of the seismic solar analogs, within the maximum-to-minimum temporal variations of the 11-year solar activity cycle 23. In agreement with previous studies, the youngest stars and fastest rotators in our sample are actually the most active. The activity of stars older than the Sun seems to not evolve much with age. Furthermore, the comparison of the photospheric, Sph, with the well-established chromospheric, S index, indicates that the Sph index can be used to provide a suitable magnetic activity proxy which can be easily estimated for a large number of stars from space photometric observations., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

$\theta$ Cygni is an F3 spectral-type main-sequence star with visual magnitude V=4.48. This star was the brightest star observed by the original Kepler spacecraft mission. Short-cadence (58.8 s) photometric data using a custom aperture were obtained during Quarter 6 (June-September 2010) and subsequently in Quarters 8 and 12-17. We present analyses of the solar-like oscillations based on Q6 and Q8 data, identifying angular degree $l$ = 0, 1, and 2 oscillations in the range 1000-2700 microHz, with a large frequency separation of 83.9 plus/minus 0.4 microHz, and frequency with maximum amplitude 1829 plus/minus 54 microHz. We also present analyses of new ground-based spectroscopic observations, which, when combined with angular diameter measurements from interferometry and Hipparcos parallax, give T_eff = 6697 plus/minus 78 K, radius 1.49 plus/minus 0.03 solar radii, [Fe/H] = -0.02 plus/minus 0.06 dex, and log g = 4.23 plus/minus 0.03. We calculate stellar models matching the constraints using several methods, including using the Yale Rotating Evolution Code and the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal. The best-fit models have masses 1.35-1.39 solar masses and ages 1.0-1.6 Gyr. theta Cyg's T_eff and log g place it cooler than the red edge of the gamma Doradus instability region established from pre-Kepler ground-based observations, but just at the red edge derived from pulsation modeling. The pulsation models show gamma Dor gravity-mode pulsations driven by the convective-blocking mechanism, with frequencies of 1 to 3 cycles/day (11 to 33 microHz). However, gravity modes were not detected in the Kepler data, one signal at 1.776 cycles/day (20.56 microHz) may be attributable to a faint, possibly background, binary. Asteroseismic studies of theta Cyg and other A-F stars observed by Kepler and CoRoT, will help to improve stellar model physics and to test pulsation driving mechanisms., Comment: Accepted for Publication in The Astrophysical Journal, July 1, 2016

Context: Detailed oscillation spectra comprising individual frequencies for numerous solar-type stars and red giants are or will become available. These data can lead to a precise characterisation of stars. Aims: Our goal is to test and compare different methods for obtaining stellar properties from oscillation frequencies and spectroscopic constraints, in order to evaluate their accuracy and the reliability of the error bars. Methods: In the context of the SpaceInn network, we carried out a hare-and-hounds exercise in which one group produced "observed" oscillation spectra for 10 artificial solar-type stars, and various groups characterised these stars using either forward modelling or acoustic glitch signatures. Results: Results based on the forward modelling approach were accurate to 1.5 % (radius), 3.9 % (mass), 23 % (age), 1.5 % (surface gravity), and 1.8 % (mean density). For the two 1 Msun stellar targets, the accuracy on the age is better than 10 % thereby satisfying PLATO 2.0 requirements. The average accuracies for the acoustic radii of the base of the convection zone, the He II ionisation, and the Gamma_1 peak were 17 %, 2.4 %, and 1.9 %, respectively. Glitch fitting analysis seemed to be affected by aliasing problems for some of the targets. Conclusions: Forward modelling is the most accurate approach, but needs to be complemented by model-independent results from, e.g., glitch analysis. Furthermore, global optimisation algorithms provide more robust error bars., Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, 20 tables, accepted in A&A

Simulations predict that hot super-Earth sized exoplanets can have their envelopes stripped by photo-evaporation, which would present itself as a lack of these exoplanets. However, this absence in the exoplanet population has escaped a firm detection. Here we demonstrate, using asteroseismology on a sample of exoplanets and exoplanet candidates observed during the Kepler mission that, while there is an abundance of super-Earth sized exoplanets with low incident fluxes, none are found with high incident fluxes. We do not find any exoplanets with radii between 2.2 and 3.8 Earth radii with incident flux above 650 times the incident flux on Earth. This gap in the population of exoplanets is explained by evaporation of volatile elements and thus supports the predictions. The confirmation of a hot-super-Earth desert caused by evaporation will add an important constraint on simulations of planetary systems, since they must be able to reproduce the dearth of close-in super-Earths., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures

The continuous photometric observations collected by the Kepler satellite over 4 years provide a whelm of data with an unequalled quantity and quality for the study of stellar evolution of more than 200000 stars. Moreover, the length of the dataset provide a unique source of information to detect magnetic activity and associated temporal variability in the acoustic oscillations. In this regards, the Kepler mission was awaited with great expectation. The search for the signature of magnetic activity variability in solar-like pulsations still remained unfruitful more than 2 years after the end of the nominal mission. Here, however, we report the discovery of temporal variability in the low-degree acoustic frequencies of the young (1 Gyr-old) solar analog KIC 10644253 with a modulation of about 1.5 years with significant temporal variations along the duration of the Kepler observations. The variations are in agreement with the derived photometric activity. The frequency shifts extracted for KIC 10644253 are shown to result from the same physical mechanisms involved in the inner sub-surface layers as in the Sun. In parallel, a detailed spectroscopic analysis of KIC 10644253 is performed based on complementary ground-based, high-resolution observations collected by the HERMES instrument mounted on the MERCATOR telescope. Its lithium abundance and chromospheric activity S-index confirm that KIC 10644253 is a young and more active star than the Sun., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 12 pages, 8 figures

\Kepler has revolutionised our understanding of both exoplanets and their host stars. Asteroseismology is a valuable tool in the characterisation of stars and \Kepler is an excellent observing facility to perform asteroseismology. Here we select a sample of 35 \Kepler solar-type stars which host transiting exoplanets (or planet candidates) with detected solar-like oscillations. Using available \Kepler short cadence data up to Quarter 16 we create power spectra optimised for asteroseismology of solar-type stars. We identify modes of oscillation and estimate mode frequencies by ``peak bagging'' using a Bayesian MCMC framework. In addition, we expand the methodology of quality assurance using a Bayesian unsupervised machine learning approach. We report the measured frequencies of the modes of oscillation for all 35 stars and frequency ratios commonly used in detailed asteroseismic modelling. Due to the high correlations associated with frequency ratios we report the covariance matrix of all frequencies measured and frequency ratios calculated. These frequencies, frequency ratios, and covariance matrices can be used to obtain tight constraint on the fundamental parameters of these planet-hosting stars., Comment: 83 pages, 103 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

One of the most difficult properties to derive for stars is their age. For cool main-sequence stars, gyrochronology relations can be used to infer stellar ages from measured rotation pe- riods and HR Diagram positions. These relations have few calibrators with known ages for old, long rotation period stars. There is a significant sample of old Kepler objects of inter- est, or KOIs, which have both measurable surface rotation periods and precise asteroseismic measurements from which ages can be accurately derived. In this work we determine the age and the rotation period of solar-like pulsating KOIs to both compare the rotation properties of stars with and without known planets and enlarge the gyrochronology calibration sample for old stars. We use Kepler photometric light curves to derive the stellar surface rotation peri- ods while ages are obtained with asteroseismology using the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal in which individual mode frequencies are combined with high-resolution spectroscopic pa- rameters. We thus determine surface rotation periods and ages for 11 planet-hosting stars, all over 2 Gyr old. We find that the planet-hosting stars exhibit a rotational behaviour that is consistent with the latest age-rotation models and similar to the rotational behaviour of stars without detected planets. We conclude that these old KOIs can be used to test and calibrate gyrochronology along with stars not known to host planets., Comment: Paper accepted with minor revision in MNRAS, 7 pages, 4 figures, and 2 tables

We present a study of 33 {\it Kepler} planet-candidate host stars for which asteroseismic observations have sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio to allow extraction of individual pulsation frequencies. We implement a new Bayesian scheme that is flexible in its input to process individual oscillation frequencies, combinations of them, and average asteroseismic parameters, and derive robust fundamental properties for these targets. Applying this scheme to grids of evolutionary models yields stellar properties with median statistical uncertainties of 1.2\% (radius), 1.7\% (density), 3.3\% (mass), 4.4\% (distance), and 14\% (age), making this the exoplanet host-star sample with the most precise and uniformly determined fundamental parameters to date. We assess the systematics from changes in the solar abundances and mixing-length parameter, showing that they are smaller than the statistical errors. We also determine the stellar properties with three other fitting algorithms and explore the systematics arising from using different evolution and pulsation codes, resulting in 1\% in density and radius, and 2\% and 7\% in mass and age, respectively. We confirm previous findings of the initial helium abundance being a source of systematics comparable to our statistical uncertainties, and discuss future prospects for constraining this parameter by combining asteroseismology and data from space missions. Finally we compare our derived properties with those obtained using the global average asteroseismic observables along with effective temperature and metallicity, finding an excellent level of agreement. Owing to selection effects, our results show that the majority of the high signal-to-noise ratio asteroseismic {\it Kepler} host stars are older than the Sun., Comment: 25 pages, 17 figures, MNRAS accepted

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., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 42 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables

The solar analogs 16 Cyg A and 16 Cyg B are excellent asteroseismic targets in the \Kepler field of view and together with a red dwarf and a Jovian planet form an interesting system. For these more evolved Sun-like stars we cannot detect surface rotation with the current \Kepler data but instead use the technique of asteroseimology to determine rotational properties of both 16 Cyg A and B. We find the rotation periods to be $23.8^{+1.5}_{-1.8} \rm \, days$ and $23.2^{+11.5}_{-3.2} \rm \, days$, and the angles of inclination to be $56^{+6}_{-5} \, ^{\circ}$ and $36^{+17}_{-7} \, ^{\circ}$, for A and B respectively. Together with these results we use the published mass and age to suggest that, under the assumption of a solar-like rotation profile, 16 Cyg A could be used when calibrating gyrochronology relations. In addition, we discuss the known 16 Cyg B star-planet eccentricity and measured low obliquity which is consistent with Kozai cycling and tidal theory., Comment: 10 pages accepted for publication in the MNRAS

The Kepler mission has collected light curves for almost 4 years. The excellent quality of these data has allowed us to probe the structure and the dynamics of the stars using asteroseismology. With the length of data available, we can start to look for magnetic activity cycles. The Kepler data obtained for the F star, KIC 12009504, shows a rotation period of 9.5 days and additional variability that could be due to the magnetic activity of the star. Here we present recent and preliminary 3D global-scale dynamo simulations of this star with the ASH and STELEM codes, capturing a substantial portion of the convection and the stable radiation zone below it. These simulations reveal a multi-year activity cycle whose length tentatively depends upon the width of the tachocline present in the simulation. Furthermore, the presence of a magnetic field and the dynamo action taking place in the convection zone appears to help confine the tachocline, but longer simulations will be required to confirm this., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 18th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun

Kepler ultra-high precision photometry of long and continuous observations provides a unique dataset in which surface rotation and variability can be studied for thousands of stars. Because many of these old field stars also have independently measured asteroseismic ages, measurements of rotation and activity are particularly interesting in the context of age-rotation-activity relations. In particular, age-rotation relations generally lack good calibrators at old ages, a problem that this Kepler sample of old-field stars is uniquely suited to address. We study the surface rotation and photometric magnetic activity of a subset of 540 solar-like stars on the main- sequence and the subgiant branch for which stellar pulsations have been measured. The rotation period was determined by comparing the results from two different analysis methods: i) the projection onto the frequency domain of the time-period analysis, and ii) the autocorrelation function (ACF) of the light curves. Reliable surface rotation rates were then extracted by comparing the results from two different sets of calibrated data and from the two complementary analyses. We report rotation periods for 310 out of 540 targets (excluding known binaries and candidate planet-host stars); our measurements span a range of 1 to 100 days. The photometric magnetic activity levels of these stars were computed, and for 61.5% of the dwarfs, this level is similar to the range, from minimum to maximum, of the solar magnetic activity. We demonstrate that hot dwarfs, cool dwarfs, and subgiants have very different rotation-age relationships, highlighting the importance of separating out distinct populations when interpreting stellar rotation periods. Our sample of cool dwarf stars with age and metallicity data of the highest quality is consistent with gyrochronology relations reported in the literature., Comment: Accepted in A&A. 15 pages, 11 figures

Recently the number of main-sequence and subgiant stars exhibiting solar-like oscillations that are resolved into individual mode frequencies has increased dramatically. While only a few such data sets were available for detailed modeling just a decade ago, the Kepler mission has produced suitable observations for hundreds of new targets. This rapid expansion in observational capacity has been accompanied by a shift in analysis and modeling strategies to yield uniform sets of derived stellar properties more quickly and easily. We use previously published asteroseismic and spectroscopic data sets to provide a uniform analysis of 42 solar-type Kepler targets from the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal (AMP). We find that fitting the individual frequencies typically doubles the precision of the asteroseismic radius, mass and age compared to grid-based modeling of the global oscillation properties, and improves the precision of the radius and mass by about a factor of three over empirical scaling relations. We demonstrate the utility of the derived properties with several applications., Comment: 12 emulateapj pages, 9 figures, 1 online-only extended figure, 1 table, ApJS accepted (typo corrected in Eq.8)

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., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 35 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables

We report on the masses, sizes, and orbits of the planets orbiting 22 Kepler stars. There are 49 planet candidates around these stars, including 42 detected through transits and 7 revealed by precise Doppler measurements of the host stars. Based on an analysis of the Kepler brightness measurements, along with high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy, Doppler spectroscopy, and (for 11 stars) asteroseismology, we establish low false-positive probabilities for all of the transiting planets (41 of 42 have a false-positive probability under 1%), and we constrain their sizes and masses. Most of the transiting planets are smaller than 3X the size of Earth. For 16 planets, the Doppler signal was securely detected, providing a direct measurement of the planet's mass. For the other 26 planets we provide either marginal mass measurements or upper limits to their masses and densities; in many cases we can rule out a rocky composition. We identify 6 planets with densities above 5 g/cc, suggesting a mostly rocky interior for them. Indeed, the only planets that are compatible with a purely rocky composition are smaller than ~2 R_earth. Larger planets evidently contain a larger fraction of low-density material (H, He, and H2O)., Comment: 94 pages, 55 figures, 25 tables. Accepted by ApJS

The study of stellar activity is important because it can provide new constraints for dynamo models, when combined with surface rotation rates and the depth of the convection zone. We know that the dynamo mechanism, which is believed to be the main process to rule the magnetic cycle of solar-like stars at least, results from the interaction between (differential) rotation, convection, and magnetic field. The Kepler mission has been collecting data for a large number of stars during 4 years allowing us to investigate magnetic stellar cycles. We investigated the Kepler light curves to look for magnetic activity or even hints of magnetic activity cycles. Based on the photometric data we also looked for new magnetic indexes to characterise the magnetic activity of the stars. We selected a sample of 22 solar-like F stars that have a rotation period smaller than 12 days. We performed a time-frequency analysis using the Morlet wavelet yielding a magnetic proxy. We computed the magnetic index S_ph as the standard deviation of the whole time series and the index that is the mean of standard deviations measured in subseries of length five times the rotation period of the star. We defined new indicators to take into account the fact that complete magnetic cycles are not observed for all the stars, such as the contrast between high and low activity. We also inferred the Rossby number of the stars and studied their stellar background. This analysis shows different types of behaviours in the 22 F stars. Two stars show behaviours very similar to magnetic activity cycles. Five stars show long-lived spots or active regions suggesting the existence of active longitudes. Two stars of our sample seem to have a decreasing or increasing trend in the temporal variation of the magnetic proxies. Finally the last group of stars show magnetic activity (with presence of spots) but no sign of cycle., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures (plus 11 pages and 22 figures in the appendix). Accepted for publication in A&A

For the very best and brightest asteroseismic solar-type targets observed by Kepler, the frequency precision is sufficient to determine the acoustic depths of the surface convective layer and the helium ionization zone. Such sharp features inside the acoustic cavity of the star, which we call acoustic glitches, create small oscillatory deviations from the uniform spacing of frequencies in a sequence of oscillation modes with the same spherical harmonic degree. We use these oscillatory signals to determine the acoustic locations of such features in 19 solar-type stars observed by the Kepler mission. Four independent groups of researchers utilized the oscillation frequencies themselves, the second differences of the frequencies and the ratio of the small and large separation to locate the base of the convection zone and the second helium ionization zone. Despite the significantly different methods of analysis, good agreement was found between the results of these four groups, barring a few cases. These results also agree reasonably well with the locations of these layers in representative models of the stars. These results firmly establish the presence of the oscillatory signals in the asteroseismic data and the viability of several techniques to determine the location of acoustic glitches inside stars., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

The dynamo process is believed to drive the magnetic activity of stars like the Sun that have an outer convection zone. Large spectroscopic surveys showed that there is a relation between the rotation periods and the cycle periods: the longer the rotation period is, the longer the magnetic activity cycle period will be. We present the analysis of F stars observed by Kepler for which individual p modes have been measure and with surface rotation periods shorter than 12 days. We defined magnetic indicators and proxies based on photometric observations to help characterise the activity levels of the stars. With the Kepler data, we investigate the existence of stars with cycles (regular or not), stars with a modulation that could be related to magnetic activity, and stars that seem to show a flat behaviour., Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of IAU Symposium 302 'Magnetic fields through stellar evolution', 25-30 August 2013, Biarritz, France

We use asteroseismic data obtained by the NASA Kepler Mission to estimate the fundamental properties of more than 500 main-sequence and sub-giant stars. Data obtained during the first 10 months of Kepler science operations were used for this work, when these solar-type targets were observed for one month each in a survey mode. Stellar properties have been estimated using two global asteroseismic parameters and complementary photometric and spectroscopic data. Homogeneous sets of effective temperatures were available for the entire ensemble from complementary photometry; spectroscopic estimates of T_eff and [Fe/H] were available from a homogeneous analysis of ground-based data on a subset of 87 stars. [Abbreviated version... see paper for full abstract.], Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS; 90 pages, 22 figures, 6 tables. Units on rho in tables now listed correctly as rho(Sun)

We comment on the potential for continuing asteroseismology of solar-type and red-giant stars in a 2-wheel Kepler Mission. Our main conclusion is that by targeting stars in the ecliptic it should be possible to perform high-quality asteroseismology, as long as favorable scenarios for 2-wheel pointing performance are met. Targeting the ecliptic would potentially facilitate unique science that was not possible in the nominal Mission, notably from the study of clusters that are significantly brighter than those in the Kepler field. Our conclusions are based on predictions of 2-wheel observations made by a space photometry simulator, with information provided by the Kepler Project used as input to describe the degraded pointing scenarios. We find that elevated levels of frequency-dependent noise, consistent with the above scenarios, would have a significant negative impact on our ability to continue asteroseismic studies of solar-like oscillators in the Kepler field. However, the situation may be much more optimistic for observations in the ecliptic, provided that pointing resets of the spacecraft during regular desaturations of the two functioning reaction wheels are accurate at the < 1 arcsec level. This would make it possible to apply a post-hoc analysis that would recover most of the lost photometric precision. Without this post-hoc correction---and the accurate re-pointing it requires---the performance would probably be as poor as in the Kepler-field case. Critical to our conclusions for both fields is the assumed level of pointing noise (in the short-term jitter and the longer-term drift). We suggest that further tests will be needed to clarify our results once more detail and data on the expected pointing performance becomes available, and we offer our assistance in this work., Comment: NASA Kepler Mission White Paper; 10 pages, 2 figures

We have monitored 20 Sun-like stars in the Kepler field-of-view for excess flux with the FIES spectrograph on the Nordic Optical Telescope since the launch of Kepler spacecraft in 2009. These 20 stars were selected based on their asteroseismic properties to sample the parameter space (effective temperature, surface gravity, activity level etc.) around the Sun. Though the ultimate goal is to improve stellar dynamo models, we focus the present paper on the combination of space-based and ground-based observations can be used to test the age-rotation-activity relations. In this paper we describe the considerations behind the selection of these 20 Sun-like stars and present an initial asteroseismic analysis, which includes stellar age estimates. We also describe the observations from the Nordic Optical Telescope and present mean values of measured excess fluxes. These measurements are combined with estimates of the rotation periods obtained from a simple analysis of the modulation in photometric observations from Kepler caused by starspots, and asteroseismic determinations of stellar ages, to test relations between between age, rotation and activity., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Context: The shortest chromospheric (Ca II H&K) activity cycle (1.6 yr) has been recently discovered in the young (~600 Myr) solar-like star iota Hor. Coronal X-ray activity cycles have only been discovered in a few stars other than the Sun, all of them with an older age and a lower activity level than iota Hor. Aims: We intended to find the X-ray coronal counterpart of the chromospheric cycle for i Hor. This represents the first X-ray cycle observed in an active star, as well as the paradigm of the first coronal cycles in the life of a solar-like star. Methods: We monitored i Hor with XMM-Newton observations spanning almost two years. The spectra of each observation are fit with two-temperature coronal models to study the long-term variability of the star. Results: We find a cyclic behavior in X-rays very similar to the contemporaneous chromospheric cycle. The continuous chromospheric monitoring for more than three cycle lengths shows a trend toward decreasing amplitude, apparently modulated by a longer term trend. The second cycle is disrupted prior to reaching its maximum, followed by a brief episode of chaotic variability before the cyclic behavior resumes, only to be disrupted again after slightly more than one cycle. Conclusions: We confirm the presence of an activity cycle of ~1.6 yr in i Hor both in X-rays and Ca II H&K. It is likely subject to the modulation of a longer, not yet constrained second cycle. The 1.6 yr cycle is the shortest coronal one observed to date, and i Hor represents the most active star for which a coronal activity cycle has been found. This cycle is probably representative of the first coronal cycles in the life of a solar-like star, at the age when life started on Earth., Comment: Published in A&A letters. 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables. Press release at: http://www.cab.inta-csic.es/en/noticias/93/los-ciclos-de-las-estrellas-y-el-inicio-de-la-vida

Using asteroseismic data and stellar evolution models we make the first detection of a convective core in a Kepler field main-sequence star, putting a stringent constraint on the total size of the mixed zone and showing that extra mixing beyond the formal convective boundary exists. In a slightly less massive target the presence of a convective core cannot be conclusively discarded, and thus its remaining main-sequence life time is uncertain. Our results reveal that best-fit models found solely by matching individual frequencies of oscillations corrected for surface effects do not always properly reproduce frequency combinations. Moreover, slightly different criteria to define what the best-fit model is can lead to solutions with similar global properties but very different interior structures. We argue that the use of frequency ratios is a more reliable way to obtain accurate stellar parameters, and show that our analysis in field main-sequence stars can yield an overall precision of 1.5%, 4%, and 10% in radius, mass and age, respectively. We compare our results with those obtained from global oscillation properties, and discuss the possible sources of uncertainties in asteroseismic stellar modeling where further studies are still needed., Comment: 46 pages, 10 figures, ApJ accepted

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 the NASA 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 1-sigma level to lie above 0.97 and 0.91, respectively. We use statistical arguments to show that coplanar orbits are favoured in both systems, and that the orientations of the planetary orbits and the stellar rotation axis are correlated., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 46 pages, 11 figures

Pulsar timing observations have revealed companions to neutron stars that include other neutron stars, white dwarfs, main-sequence stars, and planets. We demonstrate that the correlated and apparently stochastic residual times of arrival from the millisecond pulsar B1937+21 are consistent with the signature of an asteroid belt having a total mass less than approximately 0.05 Earth masses. Unlike the solar system's asteroid belt, the best fit pulsar asteroid belt extends over a wide range of radii, consistent with the absence of any shepherding companions. We suggest that any pulsar that has undergone accretion-driven spin-up and subsequently evaporated its companion may harbor orbiting asteroid mass objects. The resulting timing variations may fundamentally limit the timing precision of some of the other millisecond pulsars. Observational tests of the asteroid belt model include identifying periodicities from individual asteroids, which are difficult; testing for statistical stationarity that become possible when observations are conducted over a longer observing span; and searching for reflected radio emission., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted to the Astrophysical Journal

The active K2 dwarf epsilon Eri has been extensively characterized, both as a young solar analog and more recently as an exoplanet host star. As one of the nearest and brightest stars in the sky, it provides an unparalleled opportunity to constrain stellar dynamo theory beyond the Sun. We confirm and document the 3 year magnetic activity cycle in epsilon Eri originally reported by Hatzes and coworkers, and we examine the archival data from previous observations spanning 45 years. The data show coexisting 3 year and 13 year periods leading into a broad activity minimum that resembles a Maunder minimum-like state, followed by the resurgence of a coherent 3 year cycle. The nearly continuous activity record suggests the simultaneous operation of two stellar dynamos with cycle periods of 2.95+/-0.03 years and 12.7+/-0.3 years, which by analogy with the solar case suggests a revised identification of the dynamo mechanisms that are responsible for the so-called "active" and "inactive" sequences as proposed by Bohm-Vitense. Finally, based on the observed properties of epsilon Eri we argue that the rotational history of the Sun is what makes it an outlier in the context of magnetic cycles observed in other stars (as also suggested by its Li depletion), and that a Jovian-mass companion cannot be the universal explanation for the solar peculiarities., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, ApJ Letters (accepted)

Determining fundamental properties of stars through stellar modeling has improved substantially due to recent advances in asteroseismology. Thanks to the unprecedented data quality obtained by space missions, particularly CoRoT and Kepler, invaluable information is extracted from the high-precision stellar oscillation frequencies, which provide very strong constraints on possible stellar models for a given set of classical observations. In this work, we have characterized two relatively faint stars, KIC10920273 and KIC11395018, using oscillation data from Kepler photometry and atmospheric constraints from ground-based spectroscopy. Both stars have very similar atmospheric properties; however, using the individual frequencies extracted from the Kepler data, we have determined quite distinct global properties, with increased precision compared to that of earlier results. We found that both stars have left the main sequence and characterized them as follows: KIC10920273 is a one-solar-mass star (M=1.00 +/- 0.04 M_sun), but much older than our Sun (t=7.12 +/- 0.47 Gyr), while KIC11395018 is significantly more massive than the Sun (M=1.27 +/- 0.04 M_sun) with an age close to that of the Sun (t=4.57 +/- 0.23 Gyr). We confirm that the high lithium abundance reported for these stars should not be considered to represent young ages, as we precisely determined them to be evolved subgiants. We discuss the use of surface lithium abundance, rotation and activity relations as potential age diagnostics., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables. Accepted by ApJ

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 (nu_max) and the large frequency separation (Delta_nu). 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 T_eff = 4600-6200 K of -22+/-32 K (with a scatter of 97K) 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 HD173701. We conclude that the constraints presented in this study will have strong potential for testing stellar model physics, in particular when combined with detailed modelling of individual oscillation frequencies., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ

The growing interest in solar twins is motivated by the possibility of comparing them directly to the Sun. To carry on this kind of analysis, we need to know their physical characteristics with precision. Our first objective is to use asteroseismology and interferometry on the brightest of them: 18 Sco. We observed the star during 12 nights with HARPS for seismology and used the PAVO beam-combiner at CHARA for interferometry. An average large frequency separation $134.4\pm0.3$ $\mu$Hz and angular and linear radiuses of $0.6759 \pm 0.0062$ mas and $1.010\pm0.009$ R$_{\odot}$ were estimated. We used these values to derive the mass of the star, $1.02\pm0.03$ M$_{\odot}$., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

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., Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures, ApJ, accepted

We present a detailed spectroscopic study of 93 solar-type stars that are targets of the NASA/Kepler mission and provide detailed chemical composition of each target. We find that the overall metallicity is well-represented by Fe lines. Relative abundances of light elements (CNO) and alpha-elements are generally higher for low-metallicity stars. Our spectroscopic analysis benefits from the accurately measured surface gravity from the asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler light curves. The log g parameter is known to better than 0.03 dex and is held fixed in the analysis. We compare our Teff determination with a recent colour calibration of V-K (TYCHO V magnitude minus 2MASS Ks magnitude) and find very good agreement and a scatter of only 80 K, showing that for other nearby Kepler targets this index can be used. The asteroseismic log g values agree very well with the classical determination using Fe1-Fe2 balance, although we find a small systematic offset of 0.08 dex (asteroseismic log g values are lower). The abundance patterns of metals, alpha elements, and the light elements (CNO) show that a simple scaling by [Fe/H] is adequate to represent the metallicity of the stars, except for the stars with metallicity below -0.3, where alpha-enhancement becomes important. However, this is only important for a very small fraction of the Kepler sample. We therefore recommend that a simple scaling with [Fe/H] be employed in the asteroseismic analyses of large ensembles of solar-type stars., Comment: MNRAS, in press, 12 pages