Standing on the shoulders of Dwarfs: the Kepler asteroseismic LEGACY sample II - radii, masses, and ages

TL;DR

This study uses Kepler asteroseismic data to precisely determine fundamental properties of 66 main-sequence stars, achieving high accuracy and consistency across different modeling approaches, and providing a valuable, well-characterized stellar sample.

Contribution

The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of 66 main-sequence stars using multiple modeling methods, achieving unprecedented precision and consistency in stellar radii, masses, and ages, and making the data publicly available.

Findings

Average uncertainties: ~2% in radius, ~4% in mass, ~10% in age.

Excellent agreement with Sun, Gaia, and binary data.

Robustness of asteroseismic parameters confirmed.

Abstract

We use asteroseismic data from the Kepler satellite to determine fundamental stellar properties of the 66 main-sequence targets observed for at least one full year by the mission. We distributed tens of individual oscillation frequencies extracted from the time series of each star among seven modelling teams who applied different methods to determine radii, masses, and ages for all stars in the sample. Comparisons among the different results reveal a good level of agreement in all stellar properties, which is remarkable considering the variety of codes, input physics and analysis methods employed by the different teams. Average uncertainties are of the order of $\sim$2\% in radius, $\sim$4\% in mass, and $\sim$10\% in age, making this the best-characterised sample of main-sequence stars available to date. Our predicted initial abundances and mixing-length parameters are checked against inferences from chemical enrichment laws $\Delta Y / \Delta Z$ and predictions from 3D atmospheric simulations. We test the accuracy of the determined stellar properties by comparing them to the Sun, angular diameter measurements, Gaia parallaxes, and binary evolution, finding excellent agreement in all cases and further confirming the robustness of asteroseismically-determined physical parameters of stars when individual frequencies of oscillation are available. Baptised as the Kepler dwarfs LEGACY sample, these stars are the solar-like oscillators with the best asteroseismic properties available for at least another decade. All data used in this analysis and the resulting stellar parameters are made publicly available for the community.