# Seismic performance

## TL;DR

This paper develops a simple model to quantify the information content of asteroseismology, enabling estimation of stellar properties and optimizing observational strategies for space missions like PLATO.

## Contribution

It introduces a seismic index based on scaling relations to assess asteroseismic performance across different stars and missions, with calibrated thresholds and predictive capabilities.

## Key findings

- Identifies two regimes of asteroseismic performance based on stellar and observational properties.
- Provides scaling relations to predict seismic index with 21% intrinsic scatter.
- Distinguishes stars burning hydrogen from those burning helium using seismic metrics.

## Abstract

Asteroseismology is a unique tool that can be used to study the interior of stars and hence deliver unique information for the studiy of stellar physics, stellar evolution, and Galactic archaeology. We aim to develop a simple model of the information content of asteroseismology and to characterize the ability and precision with which fundamental properties of stars can be estimated for different space missions. We defined and calibrated metrics of the seismic performance. The metrics, expressed by a seismic index ${\mathcal{E}$ defined by simple scaling relations, are calculated for an ensemble of stars. We studied the relations between the properties of mission observations, fundamental stellar properties, and the performance index. We also defined thresholds for asteroseismic detection and measurement of different stellar properties We find two regimes of asteroseismic performance: the first where the signal strength is dominated by stellar properties and not by observational noise; and the second where observational properties dominate. Typically, for evolved stars, stellar properties provide the dominant terms in estimating the information content, while main sequence stars fall in the regime where the observational properties, especially stellar magnitude, dominate. We estimate scaling relations to predict ${\mathcal{E}$ with an intrinsic scatter of around 21%. Incidentally, the metrics allow us to distinguish stars burning either hydrogen or helium. Our predictions will help identify the nature of the cohort of existing and future asteroseismic observations. In addition, the predicted performance for PLATO will help define optimal observing strategies for defined scientific goals.