Engineering topics

Ballot, J

Publications and source records attributed to Ballot, J.

3 records

DOE OSTI2012

FIRST STUDY OF DARK MATTER PROPERTIES WITH DETECTED SOLAR GRAVITY MODES AND NEUTRINOS

We derive new limits on the cold dark matter properties for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), potentially trapped in the solar core by using for the first time the central temperature constrained by boron neutrinos and the central density constrained by the dipolar gravity modes detected with the Global Oscillations at Low Frequency/Solar Helioseismic Observatory instrument. These detections disfavor the presence of non-annihilating WIMPs for masses {<=}10 GeV and spin dependent cross-sections >5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -36} cm{sup 2} in the solar core but cannot constrain WIMP annihilation models. We suggest that in the coming years helio- and asteroseismology will provide complementary probes of dark matter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

GRANULATION IN RED GIANTS: OBSERVATIONS BY THE KEPLER MISSION AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONVECTION SIMULATIONS

The granulation pattern that we observe on the surface of the Sun is due to hot plasma rising to the photosphere where it cools down and descends back into the interior at the edges of granules. This is the visible manifestation of convection taking place in the outer part of the solar convection zone. Because red giants have deeper convection zones than the Sun, we cannot a priori assume that their granulation is a scaled version of solar granulation. Until now, neither observations nor one-dimensional analytical convection models could put constraints on granulation in red giants. With asteroseismology, this study can now be performed. We analyze {approx}1000 red giants that have been observed by Kepler during 13 months. We fit the power spectra with Harvey-like profiles to retrieve the characteristics of the granulation (timescale {tau}{sub gran} and power P{sub gran}). We search for a correlation between these parameters and the global acoustic-mode parameter (the position of maximum power, {nu}{sub max}) as well as with stellar parameters (mass, radius, surface gravity (log g), and effective temperature (T{sub eff})). We show that {tau}{sub eff}{proportional_to}{nu}{sup -0.89}{sub max} and P{sub gran}{proportional_to}{nu}{sup -1.90}{sub max}, which is consistent with the theoretical predictions. We find that the granulation timescales of stars that belong to the red clump have similar values while the timescales of stars in the red giant branch are spread in a wider range. Finally, we show that realistic three-dimensional simulations of the surface convection in stars, spanning the (T{sub eff}, log g) range of our sample of red giants, match the Kepler observations well in terms of trends.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

CONSTRUCTING A ONE-SOLAR-MASS EVOLUTIONARY SEQUENCE USING ASTEROSEISMIC DATA FROM KEPLER

Asteroseismology of solar-type stars has entered a new era of large surveys with the success of the NASA Kepler mission, which is providing exquisite data on oscillations of stars across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. From the time-series photometry, the two seismic parameters that can be most readily extracted are the large frequency separation ({Delta}{nu}) and the frequency of maximum oscillation power ({nu}{sub max}). After the survey phase, these quantities are available for hundreds of solar-type stars. By scaling from solar values, we use these two asteroseismic observables to identify for the first time an evolutionary sequence of 1 M{sub sun} field stars, without the need for further information from stellar models. Comparison of our determinations with the few available spectroscopic results shows an excellent level of agreement. We discuss the potential of the method for differential analysis throughout the main-sequence evolution and the possibility of detecting twins of very well-known stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗