Asteroseismic modelling of the solar-type subgiant star $\beta$ Hydri

TL;DR

This study refines asteroseismic models of the evolved solar-type star eta Hyi by analyzing updated frequency data and employing multiple modeling approaches, highlighting the importance of individual frequencies in stellar characterization.

Contribution

It introduces a revised frequency list and compares different modeling strategies to identify the best stellar model for eta Hyi, emphasizing the role of near-surface frequency corrections.

Findings

Best model is a post-main-sequence star with 1.04 solar masses.

Corrected frequencies match observed modes including mixed modes.

Individual frequencies are crucial for accurate stellar modeling.

Abstract

Comparing models and data of pulsating stars is a powerful way to understand the stellar structure better.\beta Hyi is an evolved solar-type pulsator with mixed modes in its frequency spectrum, making it very interesting for asteroseismic studies.The goal of this work is to search for the best model of the solar-type star \beta Hyi, based on up-to-date non-seismic and seismic data.We present a revised list of frequencies for 33 modes, which we produced by analysing the power spectrum of the published observations again using a new weighting scheme that minimises the daily sidelobes.We ran several grids of evolutionary models with different input parameters and different physics, using the stellar evolutionary code ASTEC.For the models that are inside the observed error box of \beta Hyi, we computed their frequencies with the pulsation code ADIPLS.We used two approaches to find the model that oscillates with the frequencies that are closest to the observed frequencies of \beta Hyi:(i)we assume that the best model is the one that reproduces the star's interior based on the radial oscillation frequencies alone, to which we have applied the correction for the near-surface effects;(ii)we assume that the best model is the one that produces the lowest value of the chi-square (\chi2), i.e. that minimises the difference between the observed frequencies of all available modes and the model predictions, after all model frequencies are corrected for near-surface effects.We show that after applying this correction to the frequencies of the best models, we can reproduce the observed modes well, including the mixed modes.The model that gives the lowest value of the \chi2 is a post-main-sequence model with a mass of 1.04 MSun and a metallicity slightly lower than that of the Sun.Our results underscore the importance of having individual frequencies to constrain the properties of the stellar model.