During her PhD studies, Mia Sloth Lundkvist used asteroseismology to investigate exoplanet host stars resembling the Sun. Asteroseismology is the study of stellar pulsations and is similar to the study of earthquakes, just using stars rather than the Earth.

Mia Sloth Lundkvist developed methods to extract information about the stellar oscillations and translate this into properties of the star, such as its weight and size. She used the knowledge about the stars to infer properties of their surrounding exoplanets. This research contributes to a better understanding of several exoplanet systems, and the observational confirmation that a population of hot super-Earth-sized exoplanets is missing from the planetary zoo.

The PhD degree was completed at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Science and Technology, Aarhus University.

This résumé was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Monday 23 November 2015 at 10.15
Place: Building 1525, room 626, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Title of dissertation: Asteroseismology of solar-like stars – Exoplanet hosts in the Kepler era
Contact information: Mia Sloth Lundkvist, lundkvist@phys.au.dk
Members of the assessment committee:
Associate Professor Alfio Bonanno, Astronomical Observatory of Turin (INAF), Italy
Professor Conny Aerts, Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Belgium
Associate Professor Frank Grundahl (chair), Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University
Main Supervisor:
Professor Hans Kjeldsen, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University
Language: The dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The dissertation is available for reading at the Graduate School of Science and Technology/GSST, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, room 112, 8000 Aarhus C.