The solar-stellar connection: Magnetic activity of seismic solar analogs

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic activity of 18 seismic solar analogs using Kepler and ground-based data, revealing similarities to the Sun and identifying short-term activity modulations in a young analog, enhancing understanding of solar variability.

Contribution

The paper provides the first detailed analysis of magnetic activity in seismic solar analogs, combining asteroseismic data with spectroscopic observations to compare their activity with the Sun.

Findings

The Sun's activity is comparable to seismic solar analogs within its activity cycle.

Detected a 1.5-year modulation in a young solar analog's acoustic frequencies.

Confirmed that the young star KIC10644253 is more active than the Sun.

Abstract

Finding solar-analog stars with fundamental properties as close as possible to the Sun and studying the characteristics of their surface magnetic activity is a very promising way to understand the solar variability and its associated dynamo process. However, the identification of solar-analog stars depends on the accuracy of the estimated stellar parameters. Thanks to the photometric CoROT and Kepler space missions, the addition of asteroseismic data was proven to provide the most accurate fundamental properties that can be derived from stellar modeling today. Here, we present our latest results on the solar-stellar connection by studying 18 solar analogs that we identified among the Kepler seismic sample (Salabert et al., 2016a). We measured their magnetic activity properties using the observations collected by the Kepler satellite and the ground-based, high-resolution HERMES spectrograph. The photospheric (Sph) and chromospheric (S) magnetic activity proxies of these seismic solar analogs are compared in relation to the solar activity. We show that the activity of the Sun is comparable to the activity of the seismic solar analogs, within the maximum-to-minimum temporal variations of the 11-year solar activity cycle. Furthermore, we report on the discovery of temporal variability in the acoustic frequencies of the young (1 Gyr-old) solar analog KIC10644253 with a modulation of about 1.5 years, which agrees with the derived photospheric activity Sph (Salabert et al, 2016b). It could be the signature of the short-period modulation, or quasi-biennal oscillation, of its magnetic activity as observed in the Sun and in the 1-Gyr-old solar analog HD30495. In addition, the lithium abundance and the chromospheric activity estimated from HERMES confirms that KIC10644253 is a young and more active star than the Sun.