Earl Bellinger

"What Can Asteroseismology Do for Astrophysics?"

Asteroseismology, the study of stellar oscillations, provides precision constraints on global stellar properties such as mass, radius, and age. These measurements are essential for a variety of endeavors throughout astrophysics, such as characterizing exoplanetary systems and galactic archaeology. For the very best-observed stars, it is possible to additionally measure aspects of the internal stellar structure, such as the density and sound speed profiles throughout the stellar core. These measurements offer the exciting opportunity to test the physics of stellar evolution, as different assumptions in stellar evolution simulations may yield identical global properties of stars but differ in the resulting internal stellar structure. These asteroseismic tests can range from assessing mixing mechanisms in stellar interiors to constraining cosmological effects such as a time-variable gravitational constant. In this seminar, I will give an overview of asteroseismology, highlight the progress being made toward mapping out the interior structures of stars, and present some of the multifarious applications that precision asteroseismology is enabling throughout astrophysics.