What is going on in the stars? Implications for the Evolution of Red Clump Stars

Abstract

The big data age of astronomy provides high quality and huge amount of data that makes all researchers in this field feel lucky. Planet, galaxy, and black hole studies present both data and new problems for stellar astrophysics. Fundamental parameters of thousands of red giant (RG) and red clump (RC) stars can be calculated using their precise astrometric, asteroseismic, spectral and photometric data. In this study, we compute and compare the masses and radii of the RC stars, which we calculated from the asteroseismic and astrometric methods. We also compare fundamental properties of RCs with the values of RGs we calculated before. From this comparison, we deduce that an average of 0.1 M⊙ mass is lost during the transition from the RG to the RC phase. There are also very important implications about the origin of RC stars. Few of the stars with a mass greater than 1.5 M⊙ reach their current location by passing through the RG region.