Oscillating K giants with the WIRE satellite: determination of their asteroseismic masses

TL;DR

This study uses WIRE satellite data to analyze 11 K giants, confirming that the acoustic frequency nu_max can be scaled from the Sun to estimate stellar masses more accurately than traditional methods, promising improved stellar evolution insights.

Contribution

First demonstration that nu_max scaling applies to K giants, enabling more precise asteroseismic mass estimates from space-based observations.

Findings

nu_max can be predicted for K giants by solar scaling

Asteroseismic masses have lower uncertainties than traditional methods

Method shows promise for future space mission data analysis

Abstract

Mass estimates of K giants are generally very uncertain. Traditionally, stellar masses of single field stars are determined by comparing their location in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram with stellar evolutionary models. Applying an additional method to determine the mass is therefore of significant interest for understanding stellar evolution. We present the time series analysis of 11 K giants recently observed with the WIRE satellite. With this comprehensive sample, we report the first confirmation that the characteristic acoustic frequency, nu_max, can be predicted for K giants by scaling from the solar acoustic cut-off frequency. We are further able to utilize our measurements of nu_max to determine an asteroseismic mass for each star with a lower uncertainty compared to the traditional method, for most stars in our sample. This indicates good prospects for the application of our method on the vast amounts of data that will soon come from the COROT and Kepler space missions.