Pere L. Palle

Tracking Solar Gravity Modes: The Dynamics of the Solar Core

Solar gravity modes have been actively sought because they directly probe the solar core (below 0.2 solar radius), but they have not been conclusively detected in the Sun because of their small surface amplitudes. Using data from the Global Oscillation at Low Frequency instrument, we detected a periodic structure in agreement with the period separation predicted by the theory for gravity dipole modes. When studied in relation to simulations including the best physics of the Sun determined through the acoustic modes, such a structure favors a faster rotation rate in the core than in the rest of the radiative zone.

The onset of solar cycle 24 - What global acoustic modes are telling us

We study the response of the low-degree, solar p-mode frequencies to the unusually extended minimum of solar surface activity since 2007. A total of 4768 days of observations collected by the space-based, Sun-as-a-star helioseismic GOLF instrument are analyzed. A multi-step iterative maximum-likelihood fitting method is applied to subseries of 365 days and 91.25 days to extract the p-mode parameters. Temporal variations in the l = 0, 1, and 2 p-mode frequencies are then obtained from April 1996 to May 2009. While the p-mode frequency shifts are closely correlated with solar surface activity proxies during the past solar cycles, the frequency shifts of the l = 0 and 1 = 2 modes increase from the second half of 2007, when no significant surface activity is observable. On the other hand, the l = 1 modes follow the general decreasing trend of solar surface activity. The different behaviors between the l = 0 and l = 2 modes and the l = 1 modes may be interpreted as different geometrical responses to the spatial distribution of the solar magnetic field beneath the surface of the Sun. The analysis of the low-degree, solar p-mode frequency shifts indicates that the solar activity cycle 24 started in late 2007, despite the absence of activity on the solar surface.

Impact on asteroseismic analyses of regular gaps in Kepler data

The NASA Kepler mission has observed more than 190,000 stars in the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra. Around 4 years of almost continuous ultra high-precision photometry have been obtained reaching a duty cycle higher than 90% for many of these stars. However, almost regular gaps due to nominal operations are present in the light curves at different time scales. In this paper we want to highlight the impact of those regular gaps in asteroseismic analyses and we try to find a method that minimizes their effect in the frequency domain. To do so, we isolate the two main time scales of quasi regular gaps in the data. We then interpolate the gaps and we compare the power density spectra of four different stars: two red giants at different stages of their evolution, a young F-type star, and a classical pulsator in the instability strip. The spectra obtained after filling the gaps in the selected solar-like stars show a net reduction in the overall background level, as well as a change in the background parameters. The inferred convective properties could change as much as 200% in the selected example, introducing a bias in the p-mode frequency of maximum power. When global asteroseismic scaling relations are used, this bias can lead up to a variation in the surface gravity of 0.05 dex. Finally, the oscillation spectrum in the classical pulsator is cleaner compared to the original one.

The two-colour EMCCD instrument for the Danish 1.54 m telescope and SONG

We report on the implemented design of a two-colour instrument based on electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD) detectors. This instrument is currently installed at the Danish 1.54 m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, and will be available at the SONG (Stellar Observations Network Group) 1m telescope node at Tenerife and at other SONG nodes as well. We present the software system for controlling the two-colour instrument and calibrating the high frame-rate imaging data delivered by the EMCCD cameras. An analysis of the performance of the Two-Colour Instrument at the Danish telescope shows an improvement in spatial resolution of up to a factor of two when doing shift-and-add compared with conventional imaging, and the possibility of doing high-precision photometry of EMCCD data in crowded fields. The Danish telescope, which was commissioned in 1979, is limited by a triangular coma at spatial resolutions below , and better results will thus be achieved at the near diffraction-limited optical system on the SONG telescopes, where spatial resolutions close to have been achieved. Regular EMCCD operations have been running at the Danish telescope for several years and produced a number of scientific discoveries, including microlensing detected exoplanets, detecting previously unknown variable stars in dense globular clusters, and discovering two rings around the small asteroid-like object (10199) Chariklo.

Magnetic variability in the young solar analog KIC 10644253 - Observations from the Kepler satellite and the HERMES spectrograph

The continuous photometric observations collected by the Kepler satellite over 4 yr provide a wealth of data with an unequalled quantity and quality for the study of stellar evolution of more than 200 000 stars. Moreover, the length of the dataset provides a unique source of information for detecting magnetic activity and associated temporal variability in the acoustic oscillations. In this regards, the Kepler mission was awaited with great expectations. The search for the signature of magnetic activity variability in solar-like pulsations still remained unfruitful more than 2 yr after the end of the nominal mission. Here, however, we report the discovery of temporal variability in the low-degree acoustic frequencies of the young (1 Gyr-old) solar analog KIC 10644253 with a modulation of about 1.5 yr with significant temporal variations for the duration of the Kepler observations. The variations agree with the derived photometric activity. The frequency shifts extracted for KIC 10644253 are shown to result from the same physical mechanisms involved in the inner subsurface layers as in the Sun. In parallel, a detailed spectroscopic analysis of KIC 10644253 is performed based on complementary ground-based, high-resolution observations collected by the HERMES instrument mounted on the Mercator telescope. Its lithium abundance and chromospheric activity 𝒮 index confirm that KIC 10644253 is a young and more active star than the Sun.

First Results from the Hertzsprung SONG Telescope: Asteroseismology of the G5 Subgiant Star μ Herculis*

We report the first asteroseismic results obtained with the Hertzsprung Stellar Observations Network Group Telescope from an extensive high-precision radial-velocity observing campaign of the subgiant μ Herculis. The data set was collected during 215 nights in 2014 and 2015. We detected a total of 49 oscillation modes with l values from zero to three, including some l = 1 mixed modes. Based on the rotational splitting observed in l = 1 modes, we determine a rotational period of 52 days and a stellar inclination angle of 63°. The parameters obtained through modeling of the observed oscillation frequencies agree very well with independent observations and imply a stellar mass between 1.11 and 1.15

Photospheric and chromospheric magnetic activity of seismic solar analogs - Observational inputs on the solar-stellar connection from Kepler and Hermes

M_{\odot}

The Acoustic Cutoff Frequency of the Sun and the Solar Magnetic Activity Cycle

and an age of

The radial velocity of the sun as a star and the solar cycle

{7.8}_{-0.4}^{+0.3}

HD 172189: another step in furnishing one of the best laboratories known for asteroseismic studies

Gyr. Furthermore, the high-quality data allowed us to determine the acoustic depths of the He ii ionization layer and the base of the convection zone.