Beyond Gaia: Asteroseismic Distances of M Giants Using Ground-based Transient Surveys
Kochanek, C. S.; Huber, Daniel; Tonry, John; Stello, Dennis; Holoien, Thomas W. -S.; Stanek, K. Z.; Thompson, Todd A.; Shappee, B. J.; Pignata, Giuliano; Chakrabarti, Sukanya; Auge, Connor; Stalder, Brian; Sanderson, Robyn E.; Denneau, Larry; Flewelling, Heather; Heinze, Aren; Sickafoose, Amanda
United States, Chile, Australia, Denmark
Abstract
Evolved stars near the tip of the red giant branch show solar-like oscillations with periods spanning hours to months and amplitudes ranging from ∼1 mmag to ∼100 mmag. The systematic detection of the resulting photometric variations with ground-based telescopes would enable the application of asteroseismology to a much larger and more distant sample of stars than is currently accessible with space-based telescopes such as Kepler or the ongoing Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission. We present an asteroseismic analysis of 493 M giants using data from two ground-based surveys: the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) and the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). By comparing the extracted frequencies with constraints from Kepler, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Apache Point Observatory Galaxy Evolution Experiment, and Gaia we demonstrate that ground-based transient surveys allow accurate distance measurements to oscillating M giants with a precision of ∼15%. Using stellar population synthesis models we predict that ATLAS and ASAS-SN can provide asteroseismic distances to ∼2 × 106 galactic M giants out to typical distances of 20-50 kpc, vastly improving the reach of Gaia and providing critical constraints for Galactic archeology and galactic dynamics.