Big Picture

Beyond the unique opportunity that Kepler provides to search for multiple periods in a light curve, the aim of Tricycle is to better understand the fundamental properties of stars as they age.

Three Periods, Two Stars, One Age

Many recent studies have focused on gathering rotation periods of single field stars, with the hope of using this rotation to estimate the stellar age. This technique is known as "gyrochronology" (spin ages).

However, the rotation period-mass-age space has very few available calibrations, mostly coming from limited samples of single-aged populations of stars in open clusters. Two stars in a binary system are also the same age, and measuring rotation periods for both stars gives valuable calibration points for gyrochronology.

In the case of eclipsing binary systems, many more fundamental properties of the two stars can be determined. With the help of follow-up observations, we can accurately measure the mass and radius for both stars in the binary. Combined with the two rotation periods, we hope to understand if all stars follow a single gyrochronology relation