Asteroseismology and Helioseismology at Birmingham and Queen Mary

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It is a golden era for studies of the Sun, stars, and theirexoplanets, thanks in particular to new satellite observations ofunprecedented quality and scope. These data are making it possible toinvestigate large numbers of stars using asteroseismology, the studyof stars by observation and analysis of their intrinsic oscillations.Significant uncertainties in our understanding of stars (including theSun) have a direct impact on wider areas of astronomy, e.g.,calibration of distances on extra-galactic scales, fixing the ages ofthe oldest stellar populations (which place tight constraints oncosmologies), and tracing the chemical evolution ofgalaxies. State-of-the-art studies of stars are also crucial to acomplete understanding of the formation and evolution of exoplanetarysystems, and inferences made on stars from asteroseismology allowdirect constraints to be placed on exoplanet properties (e.g., sizes,locations in habitable zones, ages etc.). Stars are the visiblebuilding-blocks of the Universe and the nearest star to us, the Sun,is vital to life on Earth. The internal mechanisms responsible forsolar activity, and its variability, lie at one end of the chainstretching from the Sun to the Earth. Variability of the Sun remainspoorly understood. The Sun also plays the role of a fundamentalcalibrator, and reference, for different areas of stellar structureand stellar evolution theory. Hence, elucidating the details of itsstructure and dynamics is key, not only in the context ofunderstanding the Sun, but also other stars.This research programme is a consortium comprised of the stellargroups at the University of Birmingham (UoB) and Queen Mary,University of London (QMUL). It brings together world-leadingexpertise from UoB and QMUL in a programme of asteroseismology andhelioseismology research that spans the disciplines of datacollection, data analysis and theoretical modelling as applied to theSun and solar-type and red-giant stars, including the characterisationof the properties and dynamics of newly discovered exoplanet systemsThe programme will make use of state-of-the-art data from the NASAKepler Mission and the French-led CoRoT satellite. In studies of theSun, UoB will continue to run the Birmingham Solar-OscillationsNetwork (BiSON). We shall use these and other world-leadinghelioseismic datasets to focus on the recent observed changes inbehaviour of the active Sun, which are taking the Sun back to lowerlevels of activity not seen for almost 100 years.