A photometric mode identification method, including an improved non-adiabatic treatment of the atmosphere^*

¹ Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique de l'Université de Liège, allée du 6 Août 17, 4000 Liège, Belgium
² Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

Corresponding author: M.-A. Dupret, madupret@ulg.ac.be

Received: 17 September 2002
Accepted: 7 November 2002

Abstract

We present an improved version of the method of photometric mode identification of Heynderickx et al. ([CITE]). Our new version is based on the inclusion of precise non-adiabatic eigenfunctions determined in the outer stellar atmosphere according to the formalism recently proposed by Dupret et al. ([CITE]). Our improved photometric mode identification technique is therefore no longer dependent on ad hoc parameters for the non-adiabatic effects. It contains the complete physical conditions of the outer atmosphere of the star, provided that rotation does not play a key role. We apply our method to the two slowly pulsating B stars HD 74560 and HD 138764 and to the β Cephei star EN (16) Lac. Besides identifying the degree  of the pulsating stars, our method is also a tool for improving the knowledge of stellar interiors and atmospheres, by imposing constraints on parameters such as the metallicity and the mixing-length parameter α (a procedure we label non-adiabatic asteroseismology).