Structure Inversions for Massive Stars from Gravity-mode Asteroseismology

Modelling stars with convective cores is rather difficult due to the many unknown sources of chemical element and angular momentum transport in their interior. This has consequences for many different fields in astronomy from the largest to the smallest scales. Our understanding of the chemical evolution of the universe through the element production of massive stars, the evolution of planetary systems and others depend strongly on this modelling. Asteroseismology provides a way to calibrate these stellar models through observation and interpretation of brightness variations caused by waves travelling throughout the stellar interior. With this research proposal I intend to improve our understanding of the structure of OB and F-type stars by performing structure inversions of gravity-mode pulsators. This requires the development and calibration of a new inversion methodology and new software based on the output of evolutionary models and pulsation codes. These inversion methods will then be used to determine the profile of the Brunt-Väisälä frequency, and the associated temperature and mean molecular weight gradient. This will then be used to generate new stellar evolution models near the end of the PhD project.