Objectives
The SYMPHONY project combines new high-precision spectroscopic and photometric time series data, and uses asteroseismology as its main tool to constrain the interior physical processes for a large sample of massive stars. In particular, the SYMPHONY project is targeting a large sample of evolved massive stars, known as blue supergiants, for the purpose of obtaining precise masses and ages with much improved fractional uncertainties thanks to modern data and techniques.
Below are the important areas in which significant progress is greatly needed for (evolved) massive stars that the SYMPHONY project is tackling:
- How does the core mass change as a function of mass and evolution?
- How does binarity impact stellar evolution?
- How do winds, mass loss and variable atmospheres influence stellar evolution?
- Why do only some massive stars undergo blue loops in the evolved blue supergiant phase?
