Measuring the core rotation of red giant stars

Understand

Red giant stars present mixed modes, which behave as pressure modes in the convective envelope and as gravity modes in the radiative interior.

• This mixed character allows to probe the physical conditions in their core.
• With the advent of long-duration time series from space-borne missions such as CoRoT and Kepler, it becomes possible to study the red giant core rotation.
• As more than 15 000 red giant light curves have been recorded, it is crucial to develop a robust and efficient method to measure this rotation.