A test of the asteroseismic νmax scaling relation for solar-like oscillations in main-sequence and subgiant stars

Large-scale analyses of stellar samples comprised of cool, solar-like oscillators nowcommonly utilize the so-called asteroseismic scaling relations to estimate fundamental stellar properties. In this paper, we present a test of the scaling relation for the global asteroseismic parameter vmax, the frequency at which a solar-like oscillator presents its strongest observed pulsation amplitude. The classic relation assumes that this characteristic frequency scales with a particular combination of surface gravity and effective temperature that also describes the dependence of the cut-off frequency for acoustic waves in an isothermal atmosphere, i.e. νmax α gTeff-1/2. We test how well the oscillations of cool main-sequence and subgiant stars adhere to this relation, using a sample of asteroseismic targets observed by the NASA Kepler Mission. Our results, which come from a grid-based analysis, rule out departures from the classic gTeff-1/2 scaling dependence at the level of ≃1.5 per cent over the full ≃1560K range in Teff that we tested. There is some uncertainty over the absolute calibration of the scaling. However, any variation with Teff is evidently small, with limits similar to those above.