Heather L. Preston

Oscillating K Giants with the WIRE Satellite: Determination of Their Asteroseismic Masses

Mass estimates of K giants are generally very uncertain. Traditionally, stellar masses of single field stars are determined by comparing their location in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram with stellar evolutionary models. Applying an additional method to determine the mass is therefore of significant interest for understanding stellar evolution. We present the time series analysis of 11 K giants recently observed with the WIRE satellite. With this comprehensive sample, we report the first confirmation that the characteristic acoustic frequency, νmax, can be predicted for K giants by scaling from the solar acoustic cutoff frequency. We are further able to utilize our measurements of νmax to determine an asteroseismic mass for each star with a lower uncertainty compared to the traditional method, for most stars in our sample. This indicates good prospects for the application of our method on the vast amounts of data that will soon come from the COROT and Kepler space missions.

Altair: The Brightest delta Scuti Star

We present an analysis of observations of the bright star Altair (α Aql) obtained using the star camera on the Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) satellite. Although Altair lies within the δ Scuti instability strip, previous observations have not revealed the presence of oscillations. However, the WIRE observations show Altair to be a low-amplitude (Δm < 1 parts per thousand [ppt]) δ Scuti star with at least seven modes present.

Polaris the Cepheid Returns: 4.5 Years of Monitoring from Ground and Space

We present the analysis of 4.5 years of nearly continuous observations of the classical Cepheid Polaris, which comprise the most precise data available for this star. We have made spectroscopic measurements from ground and photometric measurements from the WIRE star tracker and the SMEI instrument on the Coriolis satellite. Measurements of the amplitude of the dominant oscillation (P = 4 days), which go back more than a century, show a decrease from AV = 120 to 30 mmag around the turn of the millennium. It has been speculated that the reason for the decrease in amplitude is the evolution of Polaris toward the edge of the instability strip. However, our new data reveal an increase in the amplitude by ~30% from 2003 to 2006. It now appears that the amplitude change is cyclic rather than monotonic and most likely the result of a pulsation phenomenon. In addition, previous radial velocity campaigns have claimed the detection of long-period variation in Polaris (P > 40 days). Our radial velocity data are more precise than previous data sets, and we find no evidence for additional variation for periods in the range 3-50 days with an upper limit of 100 m s−1. However, in the WIRE data we find evidence of variation on timescales of 2-6 days, which we interpret as being due to granulation.

Stellar Coronal Spectroscopy with the Chandra HETGS

Spectroscopy with the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) provides details on X-ray emission and activity from young and cool stars through resolution of emission lines from a variety of ions. We are beginning to see trends in activity regarding abundances, emission measures, and variability. Here we contrast spectra of TV Crt, a weak-lined T Tauri star (WTT), with TW Hya, a Classical T Tauri star (CTT). TV Crt has a spectrum more like magnetic activity driven coronae, relative to the TW Hya spectrum, which we have interpreted as due to accretion-produced X-rays. We have also observed the long period system, IM Pegasi to search for rotational modulation, and to compare activity in a long period active binary to shorter period systems and to the pre-main sequence stars. We detected no rotational modulation, but did see long-duration flares.