Asteroseismology: Theory and phenomenology

Seismic studies of the Sun have succeeded in mapping the variation of sound speed with depth in the Sun, and variation of angular velocity with both depth and latitude. Many stars besides the Sun may also be amenable to asteroseismic analysis. Stars of roughly solar type should of course behave in ways similar to the sun, and stars of this sort form a large fraction of the potential targets for asteroseismology. But several other types of stars (delta scuti stars, roAP stars, and the pulsating white dwarfs) also have the desired pulsation characteristics. Pulsations in some of these stars are, for various reasons, much easier to observe than in the Sun-like stars. Virtually all unambiguous observations of multi-mode pulsators relate to these other categories of stars. Since oscillation mode frequencies are arguably the most precise measurement relating to a star that we can make, a few tens of such frequencies may still be of great importance to our understanding of the stellar structure and evolution.