Princeton University Thunch Talk

From ground-based photometric surveys like the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), to high-precision space-based photometry by Kepler and TESS, an influx of abundant astronomical data has generated open questions about the underlying processes driving many observational discoveries. On the theoretical end, improving our understanding of phenomena such as internal stellar oscillations has led to promising predictions for diverse systems ranging from stars hosting exoplanets, to massive stars undergoing supernovae and binary interaction. In this talk, I will describe how the dissipation of internal stellar oscillations in low-mass stars governs the orbital evolution of their planetary companions. Furthermore, I will discuss how excitation of waves from core convection in massive stars may underlie pre-supernova variation for massive stars, as well as the challenges this mechanism faces in producing the expected mass loss from such supernova progenitors. Nevertheless, I will demonstrate that the properties of circumstellar material (CSM) ejected due to binary interaction in stripped helium star systems are consistent with observations of several interacting supernovae.