Principal Investigator
João M. M. B. Fernandes (Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal)

Researcher in charge at IA
Mário J. P. F. G. Monteiro

Abstract

This project concerns stellar physics and, in particular, the estimation of what might be the most fundamental parameter of stars: their mass can be derived directly from observations only in the case of multiple stellar systems, mainly binaries. The main goal of this project is to provide realistic mass estimates for a homogeneous sample of 300 main sequence FGK single stars, using different methods and methods and techniques, namely, stellar evolutionary models, asteroseismic analysis, mass-luminosity relation and surface gravity spectroscopic observations. By combining the results obtained with the different methods, we will determine the best mass-value for each individual star, as well as the associated error bar. As an output of this project we also intend to develop and make available to the scientific community, a computational tool to estimate the mass (and other stellar parameters such as helium or age) for a star with known effective temperature, luminosity, metallicity and surface gravity.

Our team is composed of astronomers from institutions in Porto, Coimbra and Lisboa. Members of this team are involved on spatial missions as COROT and GAIA, and together have a large experience in stellar evolution models, asteroseismology, and spectroscopic analysis: João Fernandes and João Pedro Marques have skills in stellar evolution; Nuno Santos and Sérgio Sousa in spectroscopic observations of FGK stars; Mário João Monteiro, Margarida Cunha and Fernando Pinheiro in asteroseismic studies of stars; and Margarida Serote Roos in stellar populations and stellar databases. This project represents an opportunity to develop further the collaboration establish between these members of different Portuguese research institutions.

Start
1 August 2007
End
31 March 2011