Seismic study of stellar convective cores
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India e-mail: anwesh@tifr.res.in
Corresponding author: H. M. Antia, antia@tifr.res.in
Received:
30
May
2001
Accepted:
24
July
2001
It has been shown that a discontinuity in the derivatives of the sound speed
at the edge of the convective regions inside a star gives rise to a
characteristic oscillatory signal in the frequencies of stellar
oscillations. This oscillatory signal has been suggested as a means
to study the base of the outer convection zone in low mass stars and
possibly the outer edge of the convective core in high mass stars.
Using stellar models we show that because of a phenomenon similar
to aliasing in a Fourier transform, it may not be possible to use this
signal to detect the convective core. Nevertheless, it may be possible to
determine the size of convective cores using the frequency
separation 
.
Key words: stars: interiors / stars: oscillations / stars: evolution
© ESO, 2001