International audienc

Kepler ultra-high precision photometry of long and continuous observations provides a unique dataset in which surface rotation and variability can be studied for thousands of stars. Because many of these old field stars also have independently measured asteroseismic ages, measurements of rotation and activity are particularly interesting in the context of age-rotation-activity relations. In particular, age-rotation relations generally lack good calibrators at old ages, a problem that this Kepler sample of old-field stars is uniquely suited to address. We study the surface rotation and photometric magnetic activity of a subset of 540 solar-like stars on the mainsequence and the subgiant branch for which stellar pulsations have been measured. The rotation period was determined by comparing the results from two different analysis methods: i) the projection onto the frequency domain of the time-period analysis, and ii) the autocorrelation function of the light curves. Reliable surface rotation rates were then extracted by comparing the results from two different sets of calibrated data and from the two complementary analyses. General photometric levels of magnetic activity in this sample of stars were also extracted by using a photometric activity index, which takes into account the rotation period of the stars. We report rotation periods for 310 out of 540 targets (excluding known binaries and candidate planet-host stars); our measurements span a range of 1 to 100 days. The photometric magnetic activity levels of these stars were computed, and for 61.5% of the dwarfs, this level is similar to the range, from minimum to maximum, of the solar magnetic activity. We demonstrate that hot dwarfs, cool dwarfs, and subgiants have very different rotation-age relationships, highlighting the importance of separating out distinct populations when interpreting stellar rotation periods. Our sample of cool dwarf stars with age and metallicity data of the highest quality is consistent with gyrochronology relations reported in the literature.

Context. The Kepler spacecraft is providing time series of photometric data with micromagnitude precision for hundreds of A-F type stars. Aims. We present a first general characterization of the pulsational behaviour of A-F type stars as observed in the Kepler light curves of a sample of 750 candidate A-F type stars, and observationally investigate the relation between γ Doradus (γ Dor), δ Scuti (δ Sct), and hybrid stars. Methods. We compile a database of physical parameters for the sample stars from the literature and new ground-based observations. We analyse the Kepler light curve of each star and extract the pulsational frequencies using different frequency analysis methods. We construct two new observables, "energy" and "efficiency", related to the driving energy of the pulsation mode and the convective efficiency of the outer convective zone, respectively. Results. We propose three main groups to describe the observed variety in pulsating A-F type stars: γ Dor, δ Sct, and hybrid stars. We assign 63% of our sample to one of the three groups, and identify the remaining part as rotationally modulated/active stars, binaries, stars of different spectral type, or stars that show no clear periodic variability. 23% of the stars (171 stars) are hybrid stars, which is a much higher fraction than what has been observed before. We characterize for the first time a large number of A-F type stars (475 stars) in terms of number of detected frequencies, frequency range, and typical pulsation amplitudes. The majority of hybrid stars show frequencies with all kinds of periodicities within the γ Dor and δ Sct range, also between 5 and 10 d −1 , which is a challenge for the current models. We find indications for the existence of δ Sct and γ Dor stars beyond the edges of the current observational instability strips. The hybrid stars occupy the entire region within the δ Sct and γ Dor instability strips and beyond. Non-variable stars seem to exist within the instability strips. The location of γ Dor and δ Sct classes in the (T eff , log g)-diagram has been extended. We investigate two newly constructed variables, "efficiency" and "energy", as a means to explore the relation between γ Dor and δ Sct stars. Conclusions. Our results suggest a revision of the current observational instability strips of δ Sct and γ Dor stars and imply an investigation of pulsation mechanisms to supplement the κ mechanism and convective blocking effect to drive hybrid pulsations. Accurate physical parameters for all stars are needed to confirm these findings.

Observations of the pulsations of stars can be used to infer their interior structure and test theoretical models. The main-sequence γ Doradus (Dor) and δ Scuti (Sct) stars with masses 1.2-2.5 M are particularly useful for these studies. The γ Dor stars pulsate in high-order g-modes with periods of order 1 day, driven by convective blocking at the base of their envelope convection zone. The δ Sct stars pulsate in low-order g-and p-modes with periods of order 2 hr, driven by the κ mechanism operating in the He ii ionization zone. Theory predicts an overlap region in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram between instability regions, where "hybrid" stars pulsating in both types of modes should exist. The two types of modes with properties governed by different portions of the stellar interior provide complementary model constraints. Among the known γ Dor and δ Sct stars, only four have been confirmed as hybrids. Now, analysis of combined Quarter 0 and Quarter 1 Kepler data for hundreds of variable stars shows that the frequency spectra are so rich that there are practically no pure δ Sct or γ Dor pulsators, i.e., essentially all of the stars show frequencies in both the δ Sct and the γ Dor frequency range. A new observational classification scheme is proposed that takes into account the amplitude as well as the frequency and is applied to categorize 234 stars as δ Sct, γ Dor, δ Sct/γ Dor or γ Dor/δ Sct hybrids.

The analysis of the light curves of 48 B‐type stars observed by Kepler is presented. Among these are 15 pulsating stars, all of which show low frequencies, characteristic of slowly pulsating B (SPB) stars. Seven of these stars also show a few weak, isolated high frequencies and they could be considered as SPB/β Cephei (β Cep) hybrids. In all cases, the frequency spectra are quite different from what is seen from ground‐based observations. We suggest that this is because most of the low frequencies are modes of high degree which are predicted to be unstable in models of mid‐B stars. We find that there are non‐pulsating stars within the β Cep and SPB instability strips. Apart from the pulsating stars, we can identify stars with frequency groupings similar to what is seen in Be stars but which are not Be stars. The origin of the groupings is not clear, but may be related to rotation. We find periodic variations in other stars which we attribute to proximity effects in binary systems or possibly rotational modulation. We find no evidence for pulsating stars between the cool edge of the SPB and the hot edge of the δ Sct instability strips. None of the stars shows the broad features which can be attributed to stochastically excited modes as recently proposed. Among our sample of B stars are two chemically peculiar stars, one of which is a HgMn star showing rotational modulation in the light curve.