Granulation signatures as seen by Kepler short-cadence data. I. A decoupling between granulation and oscillation timescales for dwarfs

TL;DR

This study analyzes Kepler short-cadence data to characterize granulation in main-sequence and subgiant stars, revealing a decoupling between granulation and oscillation timescales in cooler dwarfs and providing a comprehensive dataset for future stellar research.

Contribution

It extends granulation studies to less evolved stars, compares background models using Bayesian methods, and uncovers a decoupling between granulation and oscillation timescales in cool dwarfs.

Findings

No universal background model preference was found.

Granulation timescales in cool dwarfs are prolonged and decouple from oscillation timescales.

A dataset linking granulation, oscillations, and stellar parameters is provided.

Abstract

Granulation is the observable signature of convection in envelopes of low-mass stars, forming the background in stellar power spectra. While well-studied in evolved giants, granulation on the MS has received less attention. We here study and characterise granulation signatures of MS and SGB stars, extending previous studies of giants to provide a continuous physical picture across evolutionary stages. We analyse 753 Kepler short-cadence stars using a Bayesian nested-sampling framework to evaluate three background descriptions and compare model preferences. This yields full posterior distributions for all parameters, enabling robust comparisons across a diverse stellar sample. No universal preference between background models is found. Assuming a Gaussian oscillation envelope, $\nu_\mathrm{max}$ estimates are sensitive to model misspecification, with the resulting systematics exceeding the formal uncertainties. The envelope width scales with $\nu_\mathrm{max}$ across models and shows a dependence on effective temperature. Total granulation amplitudes in dwarfs broadly follow giant-based scalings, however a decoupling appears between the timescale of the primary granulation and the oscillations for MS stars cooler than the Sun. The prolonged granulation timescale is reproduced by 3D simulations of a K-dwarf, driven by reduced convective velocities due to more efficient convective energy transport in denser envelopes. The prolonged granulation timescale increases the frequency separation to the oscillation excess, potentially aiding seismic detectability, while the reduced convective velocities may influence the excitation of stellar oscillations and relate to the low amplitudes observed in cool dwarfs. Finally, we contribute a dataset linking granulation, oscillations, and stellar parameters, providing a foundation for future investigations into their interdependence across the HR diagram.