Francisca Espinoza   (Chile)

francisca.espinoza @ h-its.org

Asteroseismology of solar-like oscillators in Kepler data

The field of asteroseismology has been completely revolutionized following the launch of the Kepler satellite since for the first time more than 150.000 stars were continuously observed with high-precision photometry over a period of 4 years. The long and constant time span of the observations makes it possible to identify and characterize small oscillations on the stellar surface: an ideal case for study of the interior of post main-sequence stars. In this project we aim to exploit the whole potential of Kepler data for studies of solar-like oscillators by creating the largest catalog of global asteroseismic and oscillatory mode parameters of its complete red giant stars population.  We aim to use the parameters provided in this catalog to attack some of the most important problems about the evolution of the internal structure of stars.

Supervisor:    Saskia Hekker   (HITS)