Dear all,

On November 29th, Thomas Kallinger from the University of Vienna will give a SAC seminar.

Title: The seismic scaling relations in the Gaia era

Abstract: In recent years the scaling relations for global seismic parameters have drawn attention in various fields of astrophysics. This is because they can be used to estimate masses and radii of stars that show solar-like oscillations. With the exquisite Kepler photometry, uncertainties in the seismic observables are now small enough to estimate fundamental parameters with a precision of only a few per cent. However, there is empirical evidence, mainly from studies of eclipsing binaries, that the seismic scalings systematically overestimate the mass and radius of red giants. Various model-based corrections reduce the problem but do not solve it and furthermore leave the question if correcting observations by means of stellar models is the right strategy. I will present revised seismic scaling relations that account for the known systematic discrepancies in a completely model-independent way. Even though these scalings are based on only a hand full of red giants in eclipsing binary systems and clusters, they withstand detailed tests with Gaia parallaxes.

All are welcome!