118373190
The Current Status of Asteroseismology
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 uncertainties in the input physics of the models (e.g., the opacities or the amount of mixing and of interior rotation) have large consequences for the evolution of stars. The goal of asteroseismology is to improve the description of the interior physics of stars by means of their oscillations, just as global helioseismology led to a huge step forward in our knowledge about the internal structure of the Sun. In this paper we present the current status of asteroseismology by considering case studies of stars with a variety of masses and evolutionary stages. In particular, we outline how the confrontation between the observed oscillation frequencies and those predicted by the models allows us to pinpoint limitations of the input physics of current models and improve them to a level that cannot be reached with any other current method.
118476277
Probing tiny convective cores with the acoustic modes of lowest degree
Solar-like oscillations are expected to be excited in stars of up to about 1.6 solar masses. Most of these stars will have convective cores during their main-sequence evolution. At the edges of these convective cores, there is a rapid variation in the sound speed, which influences the frequencies of acoustic oscillations. In this paper we build on earlier work to investigate the impact that these rapid structural variations have on different p-mode frequency combinations, involving modes of low degree. In particular, we adopt a different expression to describe the sound speed variation at the edge of the core, which we show more closely reproduces the profiles derived from the equilibrium models. We analyse the impact of this change on the frequency perturbation derived for radial modes. Moreover, we consider three different small frequency separations involving modes of degree l = 0, 1, 2, 3, l = 0, 1, and l = 0, 2, and show that they are all significantly affected by the sharp sound speed variation at the edge of the core. In particular, we confirm that the frequency derivative of the diagnostic tool that combines modes of degree up to 3 can potentially be used to infer the amplitude of the relative sound speed variation directly at the edge of the core. We show that at high frequencies the other two diagnostic tools can be up to a few μHz smaller than what would be expected in the absence of the rapid structural variation at the edge of the core. Also, we show that the absolute values of their frequency derivatives are significantly increased, in a manner that strongly depends on stellar age.
14738827
Improved pulsating models of magnetic Ap stars ¿ I. Exploring different magnetic field configurations
Magnetic perturbations to the frequencies of low-degree, high radial order, axisymmetric pulsations in stellar models permeated by large-scale magnetic fields are presented. Magnetic fields with dipolar, quadrupolar and a superposition of aligned dipolar and quadrupolar components are considered. The results confirm that the magnetic field may produce strong anomalies in the power spectra of roAp stars. It is shown for the first time that anomalies may result both from a sudden decrease or a sudden increase of a mode frequency. Moreover, the results indicate that the anomalies depend essentially on the geometry of the problem, that is, on the configuration of the magnetic field and on the degree of the modes. This dependence opens the possibility of using these anomalies as a tool to learn about the magnetic field configuration in the magnetic boundary layer of pulsating stars permeated by large-scale magnetic fields.
119198538
Towards the understanding of radial velocity pulsation in roAp stars
High-resolution spectroscopic time series of rapidly oscillating Ap stars show evidence for a co-existence of standing and running waves in their atmospheric layers. With the purpose of understanding these observations we have carried out a theoretical analysis of the pulsations in the outermost layers of these stars, starting from the simplest possible model that still retains all important physical ingredients. In our analysis we considered an isothermal atmosphere in a plane-parallel approximation. Moreover we assumed that in the region considered the magnetic pressure is much larger than the gas pressure and, consequently, that the magnetoacoustic wave has decoupled into its acoustic and magnetic components. Using the analytical solutions for the velocity components appropriate to this model we estimate the velocity component parallel to the line of sight averaged over the visible stellar disk. Fitting the latter to a function of the form Acos(?t+phase), with ? the dimensionless oscillation frequency and t the dimensionless time, we derive the amplitude A and the phase for our model as function of height in the atmosphere.
16590095
Asteroseismology and interferometry
Asteroseismology provides us with a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of stellar structure and evolution. Recent developments, including the first systematic studies of solar-like pulsators, have boosted the impact of this field of research within astrophysics and have led to a significant increase in the size of the research community. In the present paper we start by reviewing the basic observational and theoretical properties of classical and solar-like pulsators and present results from some of the most recent and outstanding studies of these stars. We centre our review on those classes of pulsators for which interferometric studies are expected to provide a significant input. We discuss current limitations to asteroseismic studies, including difficulties in mode identification and in the accurate determination of global parameters of pulsating stars, and, after a brief review of those aspects of interferometry that are most relevant in this context, anticipate how interferometric observations may contribute to overcome these limitations. Moreover, we present results of recent pilot studies of pulsating stars involving both asteroseismic and interferometric constraints and look into the future, summarizing ongoing efforts concerning the development of future instruments and satellite missions which are expected to have an impact in this field of research.
59387646
Theory of rapidly oscillating Ap stars
I review recent theoretical work on rapidly oscillating Ap stars and discuss key aspects of the physics of the oscillations observed in this class of pulsators.
13913247
N = 2 MAXWELL–CHERN–SIMONS MODEL WITH ANOMALOUS MAGNETIC MOMENT COUPLING VIA DIMENSIONAL REDUCTION
An N = 1-supersymmetric version of the Cremmer–Scherk–Kalb–Ramond model with nonminimal coupling to matter is built up both in terms of superfields and in a component-field formalism. By adopting a dimensional reduction procedure, the (N = 2)-(D = 3) counterpart of the model comes out, with two main features: a genuine (diagonal) Chern–Simons term and an anomalous magnetic moment coupling between matter and the gauge potential.
18800962
Dual mapping between the antisymmetric tensor matter field and the Kalb-Ramond field
In this work we present a dual mapping between the Kalb-Ramond and antisymmetric tensor matter (ATM) field actions. Our procedure shows that the correlation functions associated with both the Noether current and the topological current are equivalent.
16268453
Topological mass generation to antisymmetric tensor matter field
We propose a mechanism to give mass to tensor matter field which preserves the U(1) symmetry. We introduce a complex vector field that couples with the tensor in a topological term. We also analyze the influence of the kinetic terms of the complex vector in our mechanism.
54195021
Casimir effect in the Hořava–Lifshitz gravity with a cosmological constant
Abstract We calculate the Casimir energy of a massless scalar field confined between two nearby parallel plates formed by ideal uncharged conductors, placed tangentially to the surface of a sphere with mass M and radius R . To this end, we take into account a static and spherically symmetric solution of Hořava–Lifshitz (HL) gravity, with a cosmological constant term, in lower orders of approximation, considering both weak-field and infrared limits. We show that the Casimir energy, just in the second order weak-field approximation, is modified due to the parameter of the HL gravity as well as to the cosmological constant.
119612595
Energy eigenfunctions for position-dependent mass particles in a new class of molecular Hamiltonians
Based on recent results on quasi-exactly solvable Schrodinger equations, we review a new phenomenological potential class lately reported. In the present paper, we consider the quantum differential equations resulting from position-dependent mass (PDM) particles. We first focus on the PDM version of the hyperbolic potential V(x) = asech2x + bsech4x, which we address analytically with no restrictioon the parameters and the energies. This is the celebrated Manning potential, a double-well widely used in molecular physics, until now not investigated for PDM. We also evaluate the PDM version of the sixth power hyperbolic potential V(x) = asech6x + bsech4x for which we could find exact expressions under some special settings. Finally, we address a triple-well case V(x) = asech6x + bsech4x + csech2x of particular interest for its connection to the new trends in atomtronics. The PDM Schrodinger equations studied in the present paper yield analytical eigenfunctions in terms of local Heun functions in its confluen...