Effects of rotation on the evolution and asteroseismic properties of red giants

Context: The recent observations of solar-like oscillations in many red giant stars with the CoRoT satellite stimulated the theoretical study of the effects of various physical processes on the modelling of these stars. Aims: The influence of rotation on the properties of red giants is studied in the context of the asteroseismic modelling of these stars. Methods: The effects of rotation on the global and asteroseismic properties of red giant stars with a mass larger than the mass limit for degenerate He burning are investigated by comparing rotating models computed with a comprehensive treatment of shellular rotation to non-rotating ones. Results: While red giants exhibit low surface rotational velocities, we find that the rotational history of the star has a large impact on its properties during the red giant phase. In particular, for stars massive enough to ignite He burning in non-degenerate conditions, rotational mixing induces a significant increase of the stellar luminosity and shifts the location of the core helium burning phase to a higher luminosity in the HR diagram. This of course results in a change of the seismic properties of red giants at the same evolutionary state. As a consequence the inclusion of rotation significantly changes the fundamental parameters of a red giant star as determined by performing an asteroseismic calibration. In particular rotation decreases the derived stellar mass and increases the age. Depending on the rotation law assumed in the convective envelope and on the initial velocity of the star, non-negligible values of rotational splitting can be reached, which may complicate the observation and identification of non-radial oscillation modes for red giants exhibiting moderate surface rotational velocities. By comparing the effects of rotation and overshooting, we find that the main-sequence widening and the increase of the H-burning lifetime induced by rotation (Vini = 150 km s-1) are well reproduced by non-rotating models with an overshooting parameter of 0.1, while the increase of luminosity during the post-main sequence evolution is better reproduced by non-rotating models with overshooting parameters twice as large. This illustrates the fact that rotation not only increases the size of the convective core but also changes the chemical composition of the radiative zone. © 2010 ESO.