A Theoretical Study of Acoustic Glitches in Low-Mass Main-Sequence Stars

There are regions in stars, such as ionization zones and the interface between radiative and convective regions, that cause a localized sharp variation in the sound speed. These are known as "acoustic glitches". Acoustic glitches leave their signatures on the oscillation frequencies of stars, and hence these signatures can be used as diagnostics of these regions. In particular, the signatures of these glitches can be used as diagnostics for the position of the second helium ionization zone and that of the base of the envelope convection zone. With the help of stellar models, we study the properties of these acoustic glitches in main-sequence stars. We find that the acoustic glitch due to the helium ionization zone does not correspond to the dip in the adiabatic index Γ 1 caused by the ionization of He ii , but to the peak in Γ 1 between the He i and He ii ionization zones. We find that it is easiest to study the acoustic glitch that is due to the helium ionization zone in stars with masses in the range 0.9–1.2 M ☉ .