WITH THE ADVENT OF ADVANCED SPACE MISSIONS SUCH AS KEPLER AND COROT THE FILED OF ASTEROSEISMOLOGY HAS MADE SIGNIFICANT ADVANCES ESPECIALLY IN THE AREA OF SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS. THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF THE SO-CALLED SCALING RELATIONS TO THE STOCHASTIC SOLAR-LIKE PULSATIONS THE RADII AND MASSES OF THOUSANDS OF MAIN SEQUENCE AND RED-GIANT STARS HAVE NOW BEEN DETERMINED. BUT HOW RELIABLE ARE THEY? THERE IS SIGNIFICANT EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST THAT THE RADII AND MASSES OF MAIN SEQUENCE STARS ARE DETERMINED TO AS GOOD AS 2% AND 5% RESPECTIVELY. BUT FOR THE RED GIANTS IT SEEMS TO BE A DIFFERENT STORY. RECENT STUDIES INCORPORATING BINARY STARS HAVE SHOWN THAT ASTEROSEISMIC DETERMINATIONS OF RED-GIANT RADII AND MASSES ARE ONLY ACCURATE TO 10% AND 15% RESPECTIVELY. THE OFFSET IS BELIEVED TO COME FROM THE USE OF THE SUN A MAIN-SEQUENCE STAR FOR CALIBRATION. EXTENSIVE WORK IS CURRENTLY BEING UNDERTAKEN BY THE ASTEROSEISMIC COMMUNITY TO IDENTIFY CORRECTION FACTORS TO EMPIRICALLY MATCH THE ASTEROSEISMIC RESULTS TO THOSE FOUND USING BINARY STARS. BUT RESULTS FROM THE BINARY STAR ANALYSES WHICH ARE COMMONLY TAKEN AS "GROUND TRUTH" ARE ALSO BEING CONTESTED BY SEVERAL WORKS THAT HAVE CONSIDERED A SMALL SUBSET OF THE SAMPLE AND FOUND CONFLICTING RESULTS AND ISSUES WITH THE ANALYSIS APPROACH. WITH THIS PROPOSAL WE AIM TO VALIDATE AND EXPAND THE TESTS OF ASTEROSEISMOLOGY BY REANALYZING THE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE RED-GIANT BINARYSTAR SAMPLE (10 OBJECTS) AND EXPANDING IT BY MORE THAN 50%. IN THE PROPOSAL WE DETAIL THE MODIFICATIONS THAT MAKE OUR APPROACH SIGNIFICANTLY MORE RELIABLE COMPARED WITH THE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE STUDIES. THE AIM OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO PROVIDE A ROBUST SAMPLE OF BINARY DETERMINED MASSES AND RADII SO THAT THE ASTEROSEISMIC COMMUNITY HAVE A REAL BENCHMARK WITH WHICH THEY CAN FINE-TUNE THEIR RELATIONS. THE LEGACY OF THIS WORK WILL INCLUDE THOUSANDS OF ACCURATELY DETERMINED RED-GIANT MASSES AND RADII THAT WILL PROPAGATE INTO ALL ASPECTS OF ASTRONOMY
$300,018FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
Villanova University In The State Of Pennsylvania