Power density spectra morphologies of seismically unresolved red-giant asteroseismic binaries

TL;DR

This study predicts the power density spectrum morphologies of unresolved red-giant asteroseismic binaries to aid in their identification, revealing complex oscillation patterns and increased entropy as key features.

Contribution

It introduces a method to classify unresolved asteroseismic binaries based on PDS morphologies and provides a detailed analysis of their spectral characteristics.

Findings

Most AABs are composed of two red-clump stars.

AAB PDS show higher entropy and lower oscillation power than single stars.

Four PDS morphology classes identified for similar-brightness AABs.

Abstract

Asteroseismic binaries are two oscillating stars detected in a single light curve. These systems provide robust constraints on stellar models from the combination of dynamical and asteroseismical stellar parameters. Predictions suggested that approximately 200 asteroseismic binaries may exist among the Kepler long-cadence data, and the majority of them consist of two red-clump stars. However, detecting these systems is challenging when the binary components exhibit oscillations at similar frequencies that are indistinguishable. In this study, we predict the morphologies of power density spectra (PDS) of seismically unresolved red-giant asteroseismic binaries to provide examples that can be used to identify among observed stars. We created 5,000 artificial asteroseismic binary (AAB) systems by combining the KASOC light curves of red giants with oscillations at similar frequency ranges. To quantify the complexity of the oscillation patterns, we used the maximum signal-to-noise ratio of the background-normalized PDS and Shannon entropy. Additionally, we identified the radial and quadrupole mode pairs for the individual binary components and determined their impact on the PDS morphologies of AABs. Our results reveal that the majority of AABs consist of the two red-clump stars. The PDS of AABs generally exhibits increased entropy and decreased oscillation power compared to individual components. We focused on the AABs whose stellar components have similar brightness and classified them into four distinct morphologies: single star-like PDS, aligned, partially aligned, and misaligned. Most AABs with detectable oscillations from both components show complex oscillation patterns. Therefore, unresolved asteroseismic binaries with low oscillation power and complex oscillation patterns as characterized by high entropy offer a potential explanation to understand the observed stars with complex PDS.