A comparison of the dynamical and model-derived parameters of the pulsating eclipsing binary KIC 9850387

¹ Instituut voor Sterrenkunde (IvS), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
e-mail: sanjay.sekaran.phd@gmail.com
² Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
³ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Koenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Received: 17 December 2020
Accepted: 18 February 2021

Abstract

Context. One-dimensional stellar evolutionary models incorporate interior mixing profiles as a simplification of multi-dimensional physical processes that have a significant impact on the evolution and lifetime of stars. As such, the proper calibration of interior mixing profiles is required for the reconciliation of observational parameters and theoretical predictions. The modelling and analysis of pulsating stars in eclipsing binary systems that display gravity-mode (g-mode) oscillations allows for the precise constraints on the interior mixing profiles through the combination of spectroscopic, binary and asteroseismic obervables.

Aims. We aim to unravel the interior mixing profile of the pulsating eclipsing binary KIC 9850387 by comparing its dynamical parameters and the parameters derived through a combination of evolutionary and asteroseismic modelling.

Methods. We created a grid of stellar evolutionary models using the stellar evolutionary code MESA and performed an isochrone-cloud (isocloud) based evolutionary modelling of the system. We then generated a grid of pulsational models using the stellar pulsation code GYRE based on the age constraints from the evolutionary modelling. Finally, we performed asteroseismic modelling of the observed ℓ = 1 and ℓ = 2 period-spacing patterns, utilising different combinations of observational constraints, merit functions, and asteroseismic observables to obtain strong constraints on the interior properties of the primary star.

Results. Through a combination of asteroseismic modelling and dynamical constraints, we found that the system comprises two main-sequence components at an age of 1.2 ± 0.1 Gyr. We also observed that asteroseismic modelling provided stronger constraints on the interior properties than evolutionary modelling. Overall, we found high levels of interior mixing, when compared to similar studies, for the primary star. We posited that this is a result of intrinsic non-tidal mixing mechanisms due to a similar observed behaviour in single stars. We investigated the high-frequency regime of KIC 9850387 and found evidence of the surface effect due to the systematic frequency offset of the theoretical modes from the nearest observed modes. We also found evidence of rotational splitting in the form of a prograde-retrograde dipole g₁ mode doublet with a missing zonal mode, implying an envelope rotational frequency that is three times higher than the core rotational frequency and about 20 times slower than the orbital frequency, but we note that this result is based completely on the rotational splitting of a single dipole mode.

Conclusions. We find that the dynamical parameters and the parameters extracted from the asteroseismic modelling of period-spacing patterns are only barely compliant, reinforcing the need for homogeneous analyses of samples of pulsating eclipsing binaries that aim to calibrating interior mixing profiles.