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Characterizing Host Stars using Asteroseismology

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Abstract

The last decade has seen a revolution in the field of asteroseismology – the study of stellar pulsations. It has become a powerful method to precisely characterize exoplanet host stars and as a consequence also the exoplanets themselves. This synergy between asteroseismology and exoplanet science has flourished in large part due to space missions such as Kepler, which have provided high-quality data that can be used for both types of studies. Perhaps the primary contribution from asteroseismology to the research on transiting exoplanets is the determination of very precise stellar radii that translate into precise planetary radii, but asteroseismology has also proven useful in constraining eccentricities of exoplanets as well as the dynamical architecture of planetary systems. In this chapter, we introduce some basic principles of asteroseismology and review current synergies between the two fields.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Vincent Van Eylen, Carolina von Essen, and Mikkel S. Lund for providing figures for this manuscript. Funding for the Stellar Astrophysics Centre is provided by the Danish National Research Foundation (Grant DNRF106). M.S.L. is supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark’s Sapere Aude program (Grant agreement no.: DFF5051-00130). D.H. acknowledges support by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant NNX14AB92G issued through the Kepler Participating Scientist Program. V.S.A. acknowledges support from the Villum Foundation (Research grant 10118). W.J.C. acknowledges support from the UK Science, Technology and Facilities Council (STFC).

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Lundkvist, M.S., Huber, D., Silva Aguirre, V., Chaplin, W.J. (2018). Characterizing Host Stars using Asteroseismology. In: Deeg, H., Belmonte, J. (eds) Handbook of Exoplanets . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30648-3_177-1

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