Unveiling Stellar Cores and Multipole Moments via their Flattening

Description

Rotation, and more precisely differential rotation, has a major impact on the internal dynamics of stars (and the Sun) and induces many instabilities driving the transport of angular momentum. In this chapter we shall consider these effects on the shape of shelllular layers, and to first order, those concerning the apparent oblateness. Thanks to the advent of interferometry techniques, stellar shapes can now be measured with a great accuracy. We will review here some main results obtained so far on different stars and we will give their main physical parameters taking into account differential rotation. We will discuss how the core density can be reached. Gravitational moments are presented for these observed flattened stars, and for the Sun, for which some conflicting results are presented.

Abstract

International audience

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