IvS Seminar: Dario Fritzewski (26/09/2024)
Dario Fritzewski - "Exploring the population of β Cephei stars with Gaia and TESS" (IvS seminar 26/09/2024)
Abstract: Massive main sequence pulsators of the β Cephei (β Cep) type are underrepresented in the ongoing space photometry revolution. However, they play a crucial role in refining evolutionary models of massive stars. The Gaia mission has been a highly successful pathway for discovering pulsating stars. Based on 222 detected and confirmed β Cep stars from Gaia, I present a population study and detailed analysis of these stars. I explain how the combination of Gaia and TESS allows us to study star populations in a homogeneous manner. The synergy of Gaia's time series, spectroscopy, and astrometry with TESS's high signal-to-noise time, long-baseline time series enables mode identification of the main pulsation and the subsequent modelling for a large number of stars. Finally, I will discuss the additional potential still locked in this large sample of β Cep stars to probe the internal physics of massive stars.