Related papers: Asteroseismology for the Masses
Massive stars play a major role not only in stellar evolution but also galactic evolution theory. This is because of their dynamical interaction with binary companions, and because their strong winds and explosive deaths as supernovae…
Based upon previous discussions on the structure of compact stars geared towards undergraduate physics students, a real experiment involving two upper-level undergraduate physics students, a beginning physics graduate, and two advanced…
Recent advances in cosmic observations have brought us to the verge of discovery of the absolute scale of neutrino masses. Nonzero neutrino masses are known evidence of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Our understanding of the…
We discuss the feasibility of using astrophysical observations of white dwarfs as probes of fundamental physics. We quantify the effects of varying fundamental couplings on the white dwarf mass-radius relation in a broad class of…
We present a prescription for parametrizing the chemical profile in the core of white dwarfs in the light of the recent discovery that pulsation modes may sometimes be deeply confined in some cool pulsating white dwarfs. Such modes may be…
Stellar evolution, a fundamental bedrock of modern astrophysics, is driven by the physical processes in stellar interiors. While we understand these processes in general terms, we lack some important ingredients. Seemingly small…
The rapidly increasing volume of asteroseismic observations on solar-type stars has revealed a need for automated analysis tools. The reason for this is not only that individual analyses of single stars are rather time consuming, but more…
A revolution in nuclear physics is underway. If you know hadron physics you also know that it will last long, as most past developments in nuclear physics have shown. It will take many decades of dedicated efforts of theorists and…
The current status of asteroseismic studies is here reviewed and the adequate techniques of analysis available today for the study of the oscillation frequencies are presented. Comments on prospects for future investigations through the…
Dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles is predicted to become gravitationally captured and accumulate in stars. While the subsequent annihilations of such particles lead to the injection of energy into stellar…
Red-giant stars are emerging as one of the most interesting areas of space asteroseismology. Even a relatively basic analysis leads to the determination of the global parameters of the stars, such as their mass and radius, and the very…
Large-area surveys operating at mid-infrared wavelengths have proven to be a valuable means of discovering and characterizing minor planets. Through the use of radiometric models, it is possible to derive physical properties such as…
I discuss and consider the status of observational determinations of the rotation velocities of white dwarf stars via asteroseismology and spectroscopy. While these observations have important implications on our understanding of the…
In this review paper, we summarise the goals of asteroseismic studies of close binary stars. We first briefly recall the basic principles of asteroseismology, and highlight how the binarity of a star can be an asset, but also a…
White dwarfs can be used as galactic chronometers and, therefore, provide important information about galactic evolution if good theoretical models of their cooling are available. Consequently, it is natural to wonder if all the sources or…
Neutron stars -- compact objects with masses similar to that of our Sun but radii comparable to the size of a city -- contain the densest form of matter in the universe that can be probed in terrestrial laboratories as well as in earth- and…
That the laws of physics are the same at all times and places throughout the Universe is one of the basic assumptions of physics. Astronomical observations provide the only means to test this basic assumption on cosmological time and…
The last decade has seen a revolution in the field of asteroseismology - the study of stellar pulsations. It has become a powerful method to precisely characterise exoplanet host stars, and as a consequence also the exoplanets themselves.…
It is by now well established that non-relativistic matter in the Universe is dominated by dark matter, the origin and nature of which still remains a mystery. Although the collisionless dark matter paradigm works very well at large…
Mass is the fundamental parameter that governs the evolution of stars, brown dwarfs, and gas-giant planets. Thus, direct mass measurements are essential to test the evolutionary and atmospheric models that underpin studies of these objects.…