Asteroseismology and interferometry of the red giant star epsilon Ophiuchi

Author(s)
Anwesh Mazumdar, Antoine Merand, Rainer Kuschnig
Abstract

The GIII red giant star ? Oph has been found to exhibit several modes of oscillation by the MOST mission. We interpret the observed frequencies of oscillation in terms of theoretical radial p-mode frequencies of stellar models. Evolutionary models of this star, in both shell H-burning and core He-burning phases of evolution, are constructed using as constraints a combination of measurements from classical ground-based observations (for luminosity, temperature, and chemical composition) and seismic observations from MOST. Radial frequencies of models in either evolutionary phase can reproduce the observed frequency spectrum of ? Oph almost equally well. The best-fit models indicate a mass in the range of 1.85 ± 0.05 {M_o.} with radius of 10.55 ± 0.15{R_o.}. We also obtain an independent estimate of the radius of ? Oph with highly accurate interferometric observations in the infrared K' band, using the CHARA/FLUOR instrument. The measured limb-darkened disk angular diameter of ? Oph is 2.961 ± 0.007 mas. Together with the Hipparcos parallax, this translates into a photospheric radius of R = 10.39 ± 0.07 {R_o.}. The radius obtained from the asteroseismic analysis matches the interferometric value quite closely even though the radius was not constrained during the modelling.

Bibtex entry for this abst

Organisation(s)
Department of Astrophysics
External organisation(s)
Yale University, Georgia State University
Journal
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume
503
Pages
521-531
No. of pages
11
ISSN
0004-6361
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200912351
Publication date
2009
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103003 Astronomy
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/bf0f8d4e-df85-4a5e-b15d-fbcdabf54eef