Determining the seismic age of the young open cluster α Per using δ Scuti stars

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this work, we aim at constraining the age of the young open cluster Melotte 20, known as α Per, using seismic indices. The method consists of the following steps: (1) Extract the frequency content of a sample of stars in the field of an open cluster. (2) Search for possible regularities in the frequency spectra of δ Sct stars candidates, using different techniques, such as the Fourier transform, the autocorrelation function, the histogram of frequency differences and the échelle diagram. (3) Constrain the age of the selected stars by both the physical parameters and seismic indices by comparing them with a grid of asteroseismic models representative of δ Sct stars. (4) Find possible common ages between these stars to determine the age of the cluster. We performed the pulsation analysis with MultiModes, a rapid, accurate and powerful open-source code, which is presented in this paper. The result is that the age of α Per could be between 96 and 100 Myr. This is an improvement over different techniques in the past. We therefore show that space astroseismology is capable of taking important steps in the dating of young open clusters.