Measurement of a set of
oscillation frequencies enables us to infer their internal structure
and hence state of evolution. Each frequency senses a different
weighted function of the stellar interior. A set of frequencies can
yield detailed knowledge of the internal structure, enabling us to
deduce the state of evolution and hence the age.
The power of such analyses has been forcefully demonstrated in the
solar case, where helioseismology has provided dramatic insight into
the properties of the solar interior. Through inversion of extensive
sets of frequencies it has been possible to determine the sound speed
in most of the Sun, hence testing in detail models of solar structure.
This has revealed anomalies below the outer convective zone and just
outside the solar core, and also allowed investigation of subtle
features of the thermodynamic properties of matter in the Sun, as well
as a precise determination of the solar envelope helium abundance. The
general agreement between the inferred structure of the solar core and
normal solar models strongly indicates that the solution to the solar
neutrino problem must result from previously unsuspected properties of
the neutrinos, rather than deficiencies in the solar models. Analyses
of frequency splittings have yielded detailed determinations of the
internal angular velocity. Many of these results are based on the
excellent observations obtained from the ESA/NASA SOHO mission.
In contrast to helioseismology, seismology of distant stars is
restricted to low-degree modes, but it is just these modes that
penetrate into the deep interior and therefore convey information on
the interior structure and state of evolution. Furthermore, the
comparatively limited set of modes accessible in stars is compensated
by the richness of stellar properties that may be investigated, far
beyond the properties of the solar interior, such as
the mass and radii of convective cores, rapid rotation and the
variation with mass and chemical composition. This will, for
example, allow detailed investigations of the uncertain mixing
processes associated with convective cores in main-sequence stars, of
great importance to their subsequent evolution.
Members of open clusters present a specific interest. Their uniform
chemical composition and age, and nearly common distance, provide very
stringent constraints on the modeling, increasing the information
obtained from the oscillation frequencies. In young clusters, we may in
particular observe the beta Cephei stars, and bring important
constraints on the evolution of massive stars. In the older clusters,
oscillations in sub-giants (similar to those observed in eta Bootis can
be studied. Therefore, the asteroseismic analysis of members of open
clusters chosen to sample an age sequence, will allow us to constrain
severely stellar evolution modeling.
Also, the properties of the metal-poor stars (Pop. II stars) are of
great interest; these are expected to be amongst the oldest in the
Galaxy, often similar to the stars that are used for age determinations
of globular clusters, and may provide important limits on the age of
the Galaxy and, by implication, the Universe.
The modes of oscillation can be conveniently represented in terms of
surface harmonics Ylm
, radial eigenfunctions
and oscillation
frequencies
where n is the order of the mode
(approximately the number of nodes in the radial direction), and l is the degree, determining
the overall horizontal scale. For a spherical star the azimuthal order m is degenerate, the degeneracy
being lifted by a non-radial perturbation, e.g. rotation. A typical mode
is represented in the following figure:
![](wedge-color.jpg)
Example of a non-radial oscillation
mode with l =2,
m=2, n=18.
This
simulation of the pulsating star illustrates the surface behaviour
of the mode, determined by the relevant spherical harmonic,
as well as the behaviour in the interior which is shown in the cut-out.
Note that the amplitude is substantial even in the central region of the star,
reflecting the sensitivity of the oscillation frequencies to the core
structure
(click figure to enlarge)
The relation between the frequencies and the internal properties of the
star is reasonably well understood; based on this understanding one can
isolate information about particular properties of the star, or regions
within it, by suitably combining the frequencies.
Low-degree acoustic modes accessible for distant stars probe their
central regions. Even more sensitive probes of the core are obtained
where g modes can be
observed. Important goals of the analysis are evidently to determine
the overall parameters of the stars. In particular, the stellar ages,
particularly important in the framework of PLATO, since their
measurement will allow us to estimate the ages of the detected planets,
can be determined as a result of the sensitivity of the frequencies to
the structure of stellar cores. At a more fundamental level, the
asteroseismic data can be used to investigate the complex physics that
determine stellar structure and evolution; this will not only improve
the calculations of stellar models but will also enable us to utilize
the observations to learn about physics of matter under extreme
conditions.
The oscillation frequencies of a
star exhibit some regular patterns
which allow diagnostic information on specific characteristics of the
stellar structure to be derived, even in the presence of low S/N data. This regularity can be
clearly seen in the solar spectrum shown below: the main characteristic
of this spectrum is the approximately equal "large separation''
of approximately135
microHz between the larger peaks corresponding to p modes with (n, l) and (n-1, l), but important information
is
also encoded in the "small separation''
between peaks with
nearly the same frequency corresponding to p modes with (n, l) and (n-1, l+2).
![](virgo_detail.jpg)
Amplitude spectra of solar oscillations measured by the VIRGO
instrument on SOHO.
The figure shows only a portion of the
solar oscillation spectrum, illustrating the details
of the definition of the "large'' and "small separations''. Each
frequency peak is labelled
with the n, l values of the
oscillation mode (click figure to enlarge)
These
two numbers alone give significant constraints. The average large
separation contains information on the mean properties of the star,
e.g. its
mean density, while the average small separation is sensitive to the
chemical composition in the central regions, and can therefore measure
the central hydrogen content, hence the age of the star.
In addition to the simple use of the asymptotic behaviour of stellar
oscillations described by the large and small separation, a complete
inversion of all measured mode frequencies can be performed to
determine the internal structure of stars. Such inversion techniques
have been developed and successfully applied in terrestrial and solar
seismology where the measured set of frequencies span a large range
of
n, l values. New
techniques have been developed which are applicable to data sets with
only low
l values -- such
as would be obtained with PLATO. These techniques have been
extensively described in the recent literature, and are not discussed
in detail here.
Rotation removes the
m
degeneracy in the frequencies; the resulting
m-dependence of the frequencies
permits the determination of the internal angular velocity
![](omega.jpg)
inside the star, as a function of
r.
The measurement of the so-called
rotational splitting,
i.e. the difference between
frequencies with the same
n, l but
different
m, for different
values of
n, can be used to
infer the internal rotation rate and its variation with radius. An
example of what can be achieved is presented in
Lochard et
al. (2005), who considered a model of an evolved 1.5 solar mass
star with a prescribed
![](omega.jpg)
and a surface
rotational velocity of 30 km s
-1, and showed that inversion
of the frequency splittings for an assumed rotation profile reproduced
the input rotation profile to excellent accuracy, with frequency
measurement accuracies typical of what is expected from CoRoT, ranging
from 0.05 to 0.22 micro-Hz, depending on the mode lifetime.