The universal red-giant oscillation pattern

Abstract

The CoRoT and Kepler satellites have provided thousands of red-giant oscillation spectra. The analysis of these spectra requires efficient methods for identifying all eigenmode parameters. The assumption of new scaling laws allows us to construct a theoretical oscillation pattern. We then obtain a highly precise determination of the large separation by correlating the observed patterns with this reference. We demonstrate that this pattern is universal and are able to unambiguously assign the eigenmode radial orders and angular degrees. This solves one of the current outstanding problems of asteroseismology hence allowing precise theoretical investigation of red-giant interiors.