Asteroseismology of solar-type stars with K2

W. J. Chaplin, M. N. Lund, R. Handberg, S. Basu, L. A. Buchhave, T. L. Campante, G. R. Davies, D. Huber, D. W. Latham, C. A. Latham, A. Serenelli, H. M. Antia, T. Appourchaux, W. H. Ball, O. Benomar, L. Casagrande, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard, H. R. Coelho, O. L. Creevey, Y. Elsworth, R. A. Garc, P. Gaulme, S. Hekker, T. Kallinger, C. Karoff, S. D. Kawaler, H. Kjeldsen, M. S. Lundkvist, F. Marcadon, S. Mathur, A. Miglio, B. Mosser, C. R, I. W. Roxburgh, V. Silva Aguirre, D. Stello, K. Verma, T. R. White, T. R. Bedding, T. Barclay, D. L. Buzasi, S. Deheuvels, L. Gizon, G. Houdek, S. B. Howell, D. Salabert, D. R. Soderblom

Published 2015-07-07Version 1

We present the first detections by the NASA K2 Mission of oscillations in solar-type stars, using short-cadence data collected during K2 Campaign\,1 (C1). We understand the asteroseismic detection thresholds for C1-like levels of photometric performance, and we can detect oscillations in subgiants having dominant oscillation frequencies around $1000\,\rm \mu Hz$. Changes to the operation of the fine-guidance sensors are expected to give significant improvements in the high-frequency performance from C3 onwards. A reduction in the excess high-frequency noise by a factor of two-and-a-half in amplitude would bring main-sequence stars with dominant oscillation frequencies as high as ${\simeq 2500}\,\rm \mu Hz$ into play as potential asteroseismic targets for K2.