Pulsations and planets: the asteroseismology-extrasolar-planet connection

Abstract

The disciplines of asteroseismology and extrasolar planet science overlap methodically in the branch of high-precision photometric time series observations. Light curves are, amongst others, useful to measure intrinsic stellar variability due to oscillations, as well as to discover and characterize those extrasolar planets that transit in front of their host stars, periodically causing shallow dips in the observed brightness. Both fields ultimately derive fundamental parameters of stellar and planetary objects, allowing to study for example the physics of various classes of pulsating stars, or the variety of planetary systems, in the overall context of stellar and planetary system formation and evolution. Both methods typically also require extensive spectroscopic follow-up to fully explore the dynamic characteristics of the processes under investigation. In particularly interesting cases, a combination of observed pulsations and signatures of a planet allows to characterize a system's components to a very high degree of completeness by combining complementary information. The planning of the relevant space missions has consequently converged with respect to science cases, where at the outset there was primarily a coincidence in instrumentation and techniques. Whether space- or ground-based, a specific type of stellar pulsations can themselves be used in an innovative way to search for extrasolar planets. Results from this additional method at the interface of stellar pulsation studies and exoplanet hunts in a beyond-mainstream area are presented.

Ludwig Biermann Award Lecture 2009, Annual Fall Meeting of the Astronomische Gesellschaft (AG), Potsdam, 21-25 September 2009. 13 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (15)

• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Optical Images of an Exosolar Planet 25 Light Years from Earth
• The sdB+M Eclipsing System HW Virginis and its Circumbinary Planets
• Confirmation of the Planet Hypothesis for the Long-period Radial Velocity Variations of Beta Geminorum
• Direct detection of exoplanet host star companion gamma Cep B and revised masses for both stars and the sub-stellar object
• Gravity-mode pulsations in subdwarf B stars: a critical test of stellar opacity
• Discovery of a planet around the K giant star 4 UMa
• Detection of a tertiary brown dwarf companion in the sdB-type eclipsing binary HS 0705+6700
• The temporal changes of the pulsational periods of the pre-white dwarf PG 1159-035
• Resolving the pulsations of subdwarf B stars: HS 0039+4302, HS 0444+0458, and an examination of the group properties of resolved pulsators
• The planet-hosting subdwarf B star V391 Pegasi is a hybrid pulsator
• The CoRoT primary target HD 52265: models and seismic tests
• The MSST Campaign: II.Effective temperature and gravity variations in the multi-periodic pulsating subdwarf B star PG1605+072
• Hot subdwarf binaries - Masses and nature of their heavy compact companions
• What do stars tell us about planets? Asteroseismology of exoplanet-host stars