Validating the 1D-3D coupling stellar models via Asteroseismology of 18 Kepler main-sequence stars

TL;DR

The paper validates 1D–3D coupling stellar models by seeding a grid with mean 3D atmospheres to replace near-surface layers and comparing derived parameters for 18 Kepler LEGACY main-sequence stars against six independent 1D pipelines. Using a Gaussian-Process correlated-noise framework to model surface terms, the authors show a structured, smaller surface correction relative to standard 1D models and demonstrate that the inferred masses, ages, and radii are statistically consistent with those from traditional 1D analyses. The approach reduces dependence on the mixing-length parameter and provides a physically motivated outer boundary, enabling robust asteroseismic inferences for solar-like stars across a broad parameter range ($0.8\le M/M_\odot \le 1.4$, $-0.3\le [\mathrm{Fe/H}]\le 0.3$). These results support the broader applicability of 1D–3D coupling models for precise stellar characterization in current and upcoming asteroseismic surveys.

Abstract

Standard 1D stellar evolution model has poor descriptions of the near-surface layers of stars, and this can be improved by using the atmosphere model computed from 3D hydrodynamical simulations. In this work, we validated the model inferences of the 1D-3D coupling models using 18 well-studied stars from the Kepler LEGACY Sample. We compared our estimates of the fundamental parameters determined with other six pipelines and obtained good consistency. The results indicate that the 1D-3D coupling models can be applied to characterizing solar-like stars with confidence. Our analysis showed similar pattern for the surface term in stars with effective temperature range from ~5000 K to ~6400 K, suggesting that the surface term of the 1D-3D coupling models is simpler and easier to deal with than that of models using classical atmosphere.

Figures (10)

• Figure 1: The computed stellar models and selected star sample on the $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$-$\nu_{\mathrm max}$ diagram. Gray dots represent stellar evolutionary tracks computed with the 1D–3D coupling model. Open circles indicate the 18 selected stars.
• Figure 2: Left: Determination of the mean function ($\mu_{\varepsilon}$) and variation ($\sigma_{\varepsilon}$) of the systematic error kernel ($\varepsilon$) for KIC 8379927. Dots are frequency differences between observed and theoretical models. The colour code indicates the joint weight derived from multiple likelihood functions. The solid line represents the polynomial function that fits the frequency differences (weighted by the joint weight), and we use this as the mean function. The grey shade indicates the weighted standard deviation which is adopted as the variance. Right: Échelle diagram for KIC 8379927 illustrating the comparison between observed and the best-fitting model across three different radial orders. The x-axis shows frequencies shifted by a constant n to ensure radial ridge continuity. Black dots represent the observed individual frequencies, while colored open circles denote the corresponding theoretical frequencies from the best-fitting model. Gray solid lines connect observed modes of the same angular degree for clarity, and the gray dashed line indicates the position of $\nu_{\mathrm{max}}$.
• Figure 3: Probability distributions of mass, age, and radius for KIC 8379927 on the corner plot Foreman-Mackey2016.
• Figure 4: Center: Asteroseismic Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, identical to Figure \ref{['HRd']}, showing the positions of the 18 Kepler LEGACY stars. Surroundings: Échelle diagrams for the 18 Kepler LEGACY stars, illustrating the comparison between observed oscillation modes and the best-fitting models across three different radial orders. The symbols and lines follow the same convention as in the right panel of Figure \ref{['lk']}
• Figure 5: Center: Asteroseismic HR diagram, identical to Figure \ref{['HRd']}, showing the positions of the 18 Kepler LEGACY stars. Surroundings: Frequency differences between the best-fitting model frequencies and the observed oscillation frequencies for each star. The x-axis for each panel is centered at the star’s $\nu_{\mathrm{max}}$ (indicated by the gray dashed line). The gray horizontal solid lines mark the positions of 0 and $5\mu$Hz on the y-axis. A darkslategray solid line connects the position of each star in the asteroseismic HR diagram to its corresponding frequency-difference panel.