Solar-like oscillations and activity in Procyon: A comparison of the 2007 MOST and ground-based radial velocity campaigns

TL;DR

This study compares space-based photometry and ground-based radial velocity data of Procyon, confirming stellar activity signatures and analyzing oscillation modes, amplitudes, and their frequency dependence to improve understanding of stellar oscillations.

Contribution

It provides a direct comparison of photometric and radial velocity observations of Procyon, confirming activity signatures and analyzing oscillation amplitudes and mode identification.

Findings

Confirmed activity signatures in both datasets.

Measured luminosity amplitude per mode as 9.1 ppm.

Found amplitude ratio higher than scaling relations predict.

Abstract

We compare the simultaneous 2007 space-based MOST photometry and ground-based radial velocity observations of the F5 star Procyon. We identify slow variations in the MOST data that are similar to those reported in the radial velocity (RV) time series, and confirm by comparison with the Sun that these variations are likely the signature of stellar activity. The MOST power spectrum yields clear evidence for individual oscillation frequencies that match those found in the radial velocity data by Bedding et al. (2010). We identify the same ridges due to modes of different spherical degree in both datasets, but are not able to confirm a definite ridge identification using the MOST data. We measure the luminosity amplitude per radial mode A_{l=0, phot} = 9.1 +/- 0.5 ppm. Combined with the estimate for the RV data by Arentoft et al. (2008) this gives a mean amplitude ratio of A_{l=0, phot}/A_{l=0, RV} = 0.24 +/- 0.02 ppm cm^{-1} s, considerably higher than expected from scaling relations but in reasonable agreement with theoretical models by Houdek (2010). We also compare the amplitude ratio as a function of frequency, and find that the maximum of the oscillation envelope is shifted to higher frequencies in photometry than in velocity.