Porto Summer School on Asteroseismology: From Pixels to Stellar Ages, Vila do Conde, 21-26 July 2024

This is an international advanced school, addressing topics at the forefront of research in stellar physics, namely, asteroseismology. The “Porto Summer School on Asteroseismology” aims at PhD students in any field of Astrophysics, but interested early career researchers (up to 3 years after the PhD) and MSc students can also apply.  

The program offers young researchers a chance to network with peers and lecturers, encouraging the exchange of techniques and concepts beyond their primary research focus.

 

The school focuses on areas of stellar physics which greatly benefited from space-based photometry. The revolution, which started with CNES & ESA’s CoRoT, considerably blew up with NASA’s Kepler. The data collected by this mission, even now, is giving rise to new developments in stellar physics. Kepler was followed by its extended mission, K2, and NASA’s TESS, which is still operating.  In the near future, ESA’s PLATO will extend this wealth of observations. Ground-based spectroscopy, in particular through SONG and ESPRESSO, has also been providing asteroseismic stellar data. This school will address the information that can be extracted and interpreted from photometric data, particularly from high-frequency brightness variations, through asteroseismology, as well as low-frequency brightness variations due to the presence of active regions. It will feature a series of theoretical classes and hands-on tutorials, where the participants will learn how to transform the photometric data into stellar properties, going “from pixels to stellar ages”. It will not only focus on more traditional methods but also address the use of machine learning techniques, which are requested by the extraordinary growth of available data. Space-based photometry can also benefit from complementary surveys like ESA’s Gaia, APOGEE, and LAMOST, which promote better stellar characterization.