A bayesian approach to scaling relations for amplitudes of solar-like oscillations in Kepler stars

Abstract

We investigate different amplitude scaling relations adopted for the asteroseismology of stars that show solar-like oscillations. Amplitudes are among the most challenging asteroseismic quantities to handle because of the large uncertainties that arise in measuring the background level in the star's power spectrum. We present results computed by means of a Bayesian inference on a sample of 1640 stars observed with Kepler, spanning from main sequence to red giant stars, for 12 models used for amplitude predictions and exploiting recently wellcalibrated effective temperatures from Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry. We test the candidate amplitude scaling relations by means of a Bayesian model comparison. We find the model having a separate dependence upon the mass of the stars to be largely the most favoured one. The differences among models and the differences seen in their free parameters from early to late phases of stellar evolution are also highlighted. © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.