The CoRoT primary target HD 52265: models and seismic tests

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse et Tarbes – UMR 5572 – Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III – CNRS, 14 Av. E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France e-mail: sylvie.vauclair@ast.obs-mip.fr

Received: 23 November 2006
Accepted: 6 May 2007

Abstract

Aims.HD 52265 is the only known exoplanet-host star selected as a main target for the seismology programme of the CoRoT satellite. As such, it will be observed continuously during five months, which is of particular interest when studying planetary systems. This star was misclassified as a giant in the Bright Star Catalog, while it is more probably on the main-sequence or at the beginning of the subgiant branch. We performed an extensive analysis of this star, showing how asteroseismology may lead to a precise determination of its external parameters and internal structure.

Methods.We first reviewed the observational constraints on the metallicity, the gravity, and the effective temperature derived from the spectroscopic observations of HD 52265. We also derived its luminosity using the Hipparcos parallax. We computed the evolutionary tracks for models of various metallicities that cross the relevant observational error boxes in the gravity-effective temperature plane. We selected eight different stellar models that satisfy the observational constraints, computed their p-modes frequencies, and analysed specific seismic tests.

Results.The possible models for HD 52265, which satisfy the constraints derived from the spectroscopic observations, are different in both their external and internal parameters. They lie either on the main sequence or at the beginning of the subgiant branch. The differences in the models lead to quite different properties of their oscillation frequencies. We give evidence of an interesting specific behaviour of these frequencies in the case of helium-rich cores: the “small separations” may become negative and give constraints on the size of the core. We expect that the observations of this star by the CoRoT satellite will allow a choice between these possible models.