Sabbatical Conny Aerts: Bridging Asteroseismology, Galactic Structure and Chemical Evolution

he aim is to perform the asteroseismological modeling of stars with masses above about 1.3 times the mass of the Sun and up to about 40 solar masses, which has so far been done based on high-precision time series collected with NASA Kepler (past) and TESS (operational) satellites, to improve with additional measurements. Asteroseismological modeling is a high-dimensional mathematical problem in computational astrophysics where spectroscopic and astrometric observations have not been used or have been suboptimally used, because they are not yet of sufficient precision. That will change by the summer of 2022, when the time series recorded by the ESA Gaia satellite will be released. In addition, we expect the first data that is currently being collected by the American Sloan Digital Sky project Faze 5 (SDSS-V) in which we have invested as a team via the C1 grant PARADISE (2018-2024). The aim is to design and apply new modeling methodology that can optimally exploit these three different types of data. In order to realize this, the applicant will carry out research internships in New York City (world center in computational astrophysics) and in Heidelberg (leader in SDSS-V and Gaia). However, the modeling should also be based on better theoretical star models, especially including angular moment transport processes and chemical elements that are currently not or insufficiently included in star models. To this end, the frequent short stays in Heidelberg will alternate with internships in Saclay, France, in order to intensify our ongoing collaboration with the team of Professor Stéphane Mathis. Finally, we will participate in the 1-month international research program which is precisely aimed at bringing together research experts for combining asteroseismology, astrometry and spectroscopy and will be organized in Munich in July 2023. During the sabbatical period, the applicant will fully focus on research, including the supervision of its 10 PhD students.