Weighing Betelgeuse: Measuring the mass of alpha Orionis from stellar limb-darkening
arXiv:1109.4562
Abstract
Stellar limb-darkening is an important tool for constraining the properties of a stellar atmosphere. We present a novel method for relating the fundamental stellar parameters mass and radius to limb-darkening laws using grids of spherical model stellar atmospheres. This method is applied to interferometric observations of the red supergiant Betelgeuse, where an unique measure of the stellar mass is determined.
6 pages, 3 figures, To appear in the proceedings of "The 9th Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics", (Lijiang, China, April, 2011), ASPC