Evolutionary states of red-giant stars from grid-based modelling

Abstract

From its surface properties it can be difficult to determine whether a red-giant star is in its heliumcore-burning phase or only burning hydrogen in a shell around an inert helium core. Stars in either of these stages can have similar effective temperatures, radii and hence luminosities, i.e. they can be located at the same position in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Asteroseismology – the study of the internal structure of stars through their global oscillations – can provide the necessary additional constraints to determine the evolutionary states of red-giant stars. Here, we present a method that uses grid-based modelling based on global asteroseismic properties (vmax, frequency of maximum oscillation power; and Δv, frequency spacing between modes of the same degree and consecutive radial orders) as well as effective temperature and metallicity to determine the evolutionary phases. This method is applicable even to timeseries data of limited length, although with a small fraction of miss-classifications.