| Issue |
A&A
Volume 574, February 2015
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | A17 | |
| Number of page(s) | 10 | |
| Section | Stellar structure and evolution | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201424585 | |
| Published online | 16 January 2015 | |
Detecting non-uniform period spacings in the Kepler photometry of γ Doradus stars: methodology and case studies⋆,⋆⋆
1 Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
e-mail: timothy.vanreeth@ster.kuleuven.be
2 Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, University of Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3 Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Apartado de Correos 321, 387 00 Santa Cruz de la Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
Received: 11 July 2014
Accepted: 24 October 2014
Context. The analysis of stellar oscillations is one of the most reliable ways to probe stellar interiors. Recent space missions such as Kepler have provided us with an opportunity to study these oscillations with unprecedented detail. For many multi-periodic pulsators such as γ Doradus stars, this led to the detection of dozens to hundreds of oscillation frequencies that could not be found from ground-based observations.
Aims. We aim to detect non-uniform period spacings in the Fourier spectra of a sample of γ Doradus stars observed by Kepler. Such detection is complicated by both the large number of significant frequencies in the space photometry and by overlapping non-equidistant rotationally split multiplets.
Methods. Guided by theoretical properties of gravity-mode oscillation of γ Doradus stars, we developed a period-spacing detection method and applied it to Kepler observations of a few stars, after having tested the performance from simulations.
Results. The application of the technique resulted in the clear detection of non-uniform period spacing series for three out of the five treated Kepler targets. Disadvantages of the technique are also discussed, and include the disability to distinguish between different values of the spherical degree and azimuthal order of the oscillation modes without additional theoretical modelling.
Conclusions. Despite the shortcomings, the method is shown to allow solid detections of period spacings for γ Doradus stars, which will allow future asteroseismic analyses of these stars.
Key words: asteroseismology / methods: data analysis / stars: fundamental parameters / stars: variables: general
Based on data gathered with the NASA Discovery mission Kepler and the HERMES spectrograph, which is installed at the Mercator Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma by the Flemish Community at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, and supported by the Fund for Scientific Research of Flanders (FWO), Belgium, the Research Council of KU Leuven, Belgium, the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS), Belgium, the Royal Observatory of Belgium, the Observatoire de Genève, Switzerland, and the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Germany.
Table A.1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/574/A17
© ESO, 2015
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