Letters to the Editor

Amplitudes of solar-like oscillations: a new scaling relation

¹ Department of Physics and AstronomyAarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
e-mail: hans@phys.au.dk
² Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA), School of Physics, University of Sydney 2006, Australia
e-mail: bedding@physics.usyd.edu.au

Received: 26 February 2011
Accepted: 7 April 2011

Abstract

Solar-like oscillations are excited by near-surface convection and are being observed in growing numbers of stars using ground- and space-based telescopes. We have previously suggested an empirical scaling relation to predict their amplitudes. This relation has found widespread use but it predicts amplitudes in F-type stars that are higher than observed. Here we present a new scaling relation that is based on the postulate that the power in velocity fluctuations due to p-mode oscillations scales with stellar parameters in the same way as the power in velocity fluctuations due to granulation. The new relation includes a dependence on the damping rate via the mode lifetime and should be testable using observations from the CoRoT and Kepler missions. We also suggest scaling relations for the properties of the background power due to granulation and argue that both these and the amplitude relations should be applicable to red giant stars.