Evolutionary tracks for Betelgeuse

Understand

We have constructed a series of non-rotating quasi-hydrostatic evolutionary models for the M2 Iab supergiant Betelgeuse ($\alpha~Orionis$).

• Our models are constrained by multiple observed values for the temperature, luminosity, surface composition and mass loss for this star, along with the parallax distance and high resolution imagery that determines its radius.
• We have then applied our best-fit models to analyze the observed variations in surface luminosity and the size of detected surface bright spots as the result of up-flowing convective material from regions of high temperature in the surface convective zone.
• We also attempt to explain the intermittently observed periodic variability in a simple radial linear adiabatic pulsation model.