The Asteroseismic Laboratories project (SeismoLab in short) is dedicated to the asteroseimic study of pulsating stars. Our goal is to expand the applications of asteroseismology, the study of stars through observing and modeling their oscillations, to large- amplitude pulsators (e.g., RR Lyrae and Cepheid stars). We use the best available space survey missions, TESS and Gaia, to collect observational data of stars within the Milky Way. We use state-of-the-art software to calculate how such stars evolve during their lives; how they might oscillate at specific ages; and multi-dimensional codes to calculate how their structures change as the pulsation is propagating in them. The project runs from late 2021 to late 2026.

Check out the seismolab python package, written by Attila Bódi that includes a variety of tasks to analyze variable star data. This includes calculating the Fourier parameters, O-C data, analysis of temporal variations via light curve template fitting and time-frequency distributions, as well as querying the Gaia parameters for color brightness and extinction data. You can find the code at our github page, and the documentation with example notebooks at readthedocs.

Research Team

The PI of the Élvonal grant is László Molnár. Currently, the team includes five senior members, nine junior members, three undergraduate mentees and four external collaborators.

In the news

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse... Betelbuddy? Experts Think This Supergiant Star Might Have a Partner - Popular Mechanics, 2024.09.25.
Famous Red Star Betelgeuse Could Actually Be Two Stars - Gizmodo, 2024.09.13.
Planet-eating stars hint at hidden chaos in the Milky Way - Nature News, 2024.03.20.
Olyan bolygófaló csillagokat fedeztek fel, amelyek szuperföldeket is képesek elnyelni - Qubit, 2024.03.20.
A csillagfejlődés kódja - Beszélgetés Meridith Joyce-szal és Molnár Lászlóval - Élet és Tudomány, 2023/43, 1363
How do you weigh a star? Masses of RR Lyrae stars revealed through their pulsations - Phys.org, 2023.09.07.
No, Betelgeuse Won’t Go Supernova in 'Tens of Years'—or Even Centuries - Gizmodo, 2023.06.22.
How soon will Betelgeuse blow? - Sky and Telescope, 2023.06.09.
Az exobolygók légkörének vizsgálatával a nem túl távoli jövőben felfedezhetünk egy életet hordozó bolygót - Qubit, 2023.06.05.
Molnár László: A csillagászat egy kapudrog - Szertár podcast, 2023.05.29.
Variable star GD 99 investigated by researchers - phys.org, 2022.11.29.
Furcsa csillagokat talált a Tejútrendszer eddigi legrészletesebb térképén a Gaia űrtávcső - Csillagászati Hírportál, 2022.06.13.
Élvonalban a hazai asztroszeizmológia - Élet és Tudomány, 2021/43, p. 1363
Hiába sok gyerek álma, hogy csillagász legyen, a magyar közoktatást hidegen hagyja az űrkorszak - Qubit, 2021.10.06.
Kozmikus világítótornyok és a csillagmodellezés lehetetlensége - Qubit, 2021.06.22.
Élvonal program: több mint kétmilliárd forinttal támogatják a legszínvonalasabb kutatásokat - NKFIH, 2021.06.15.

Selected publications

You can browse our full list of publications here or at the ADS too.

- 2024 -

Stellar Evolution in Real Time II: R Hydrae and an Open-Source Grid of >3000 Seismic TP-AGB Models Computed with MESA
Joyce, Meridith; Molnár, László; Cinquegrana, Giulia; Karakas, Amanda; Tayar, Jamie; Tarczay-Nehéz, Dóra, 2024, ApJ, 971, 186
| ADS | arXiv |
On the incidence rate of RR Lyrae stars with non-radial modes
Netzel, Henryka; Varga, Vázsony; Szabó, Róbert; Smolec, Radek; Plachy, Emese, 2024, A&A, in press
| ADS | arXiv |
Rotation of ZZ Ceti stars as seen by TESS
Bognár, Zsófia; Sódor, Ádám, 2024, A&A, 684, 76
| ADS | arXiv |
A theoretical framework for BL Her stars -- II. New period-luminosity relations in the Gaia passbands
Das, Susmita; Molnár, László; Kanbur, Shashi M.; Joyce, Meridith; Bhardwaj, Anupam; Singh, Harinder P.; Marconi, Marcella; Ripepi, Vincenzo; Smolec, Radoslaw, 2024, A&A, 684, 170
| ADS | arXiv |
Temperature-dependent convective parameters for RRc 1D models
Kovács, Gábor B.; Nuspl, János; Szabó, Róbert, 2024, MNRAS, 527, 1
| ADS | arXiv |

- 2023 -

Detailed asteroseismic modelling of RR Lyrae stars with non-radial modes
Netzel, Henryka, Molnár, László; Joyce, Meridith, 2023, MNRAS, 525, 5378
| ADS | arXiv |
To grow old and peculiar: Survey of anomalous variable stars in M80 with age determinations using K2 and Gaia
Molnár, László; Plachy, Emese; Bódi, Attila; Pál, András; Joyce, Meridith; Kalup, Csilla; Johnson, Christian I.; Dencs, Zoltán; Mészáros, Szabolcs; Netzel, Henryka; Kinemuchi, Karen; Kollmeier, Juna A.; Prieto, Jose Luis; Derekas, Aliz, 2023, A&A, 678, 104
| ADS | arXiv |
Testing Ultra-low Amplitude Cepheid Candidates in the Galactic Disk by TESS and Gaia
Tarczay-Nehéz, Dóra; Molnár, László; Bódi, Attila; Szabó, Róbert, 2023, A&A, accepted
| ADS | arXiv |
Variable stars in the residual light curves of OGLE-IV eclipsing binaries towards the Galactic Bulge
Ádám, Rozália Z.; Hajdu, Tamás; Bódi, Attila; Hajdu, Róbert; Szklenár, Tamás; Molnár, László, 2023, A&A, 674, 170
| ADS | arXiv |
Gaia DR3: Specific processing and validation of all-sky RR Lyrae and Cepheid stars -- The Cepheid sample
Ripepi, V.; Clementini, G.; Molinaro, R.; Leccia, S.; Plachy, E.; Molnár, L.; Rimoldini, L.; Musella, I.; Marconi, M.; Garofalo, A.; Audard, M.; Holl, B.; Evans, D. W.; Jevardat de Fombelle, G.; Lecoeur-Taibi, I.; Marchal, O.; Mowlavi, N.; Muraveva, T.; Nienartowicz, K.; Sartoretti, P.; Szabados, L.; Eyer, L., 2022, A&A, 674, 17
| ADS | arXiv |
Calibration of the convective parameters in stellar pulsation hydrocodes
Kovács, Gábor B.; Nuspl, János; Szabó, Róbert, 2023, MNRAS, 521, 4878
| ADS | arXiv |
Time series analysis of bright TESS RRc stars: additional modes, phase variations, and more
Benkő, J. M.; Plachy, E.; Netzel, H.; Bódi, A.; Molnár, L.; Pál, A., 2023, MNRAS, 521, 443
| ADS | arXiv |
GD 99: Re-investigation of an old ZZ Ceti companion
Bognár, Zsófia; Ádám, Sódor,; Mező, György, 2023, A&A, 662, 62
| ADS | arXiv |
Type II and anomalous Cepheids in the Kepler K2 mission
Jurkovic, Mónika; Plachy, Emese; Molnár, László; Groenewegen, Martin A. T.; Bódi, Attila; Moskalik, Pawel; Szabó, Róbert, 2023, MNRAS, 518, 642
| ADS | arXiv |

- 2022 -

Period-colour and amplitude-colour relations for OGLE-δ Scuti stars in the Galactic bulge and LMC
Deka, Mami; Kanbur, Shashi M.; Deb, Sukanta; Das, Susmita; Kurbah, Kerdaris; Bellinger, Earl P.; Bhardwaj, Anupam, 2022, MNRAS, 517, 2251
| ADS | arXiv |
Variable Star Classification with a Multiple-input Neural Network
Szklenár, Tamás; Bódi, Attila; Tarczay-Nehéz, Dóra; Vida, Krisztián; Mező, György; Szabó, Róbert, 2022, ApJ, 938, 37
| ADS | arXiv |
Kepler Pixel Project -- background RR Lyrae stars in the primary Kepler mission field of view
Forró, Adrienn; Szabó, Róbert; Bódi, Attila; Császár Kornél, 2022, ApJS, 260, 20
| ADS | arXiv |
Study of changes in the pulsation period of 148 Galactic Cepheid variables
Csörnyei, Géza; Szabados, László; Molnár, László; Cseh, Borbála; Egei, Nóra; Kalup, Csilla; Kecskeméthy, Viktória; Könyves-Tóth, Réka; Sárneczky, Krisztián; Szakáts, Róbert, 2022, MNRAS, 511, 2125
| ADS | arXiv |
Automated Extended Aperture Photometry of K2 variable stars
Bódi, A.; Szabó, P.; Plachy, Emese; Molnár, László; Szabó, Róbert, 2021, PASP, 134, 014503
| ADS | arXiv |
Eclipse timing variation analysis of OGLE-IV eclipsing binaries toward the Galactic Bulge. II. Short periodic triple stellar systems
Hajdu, Tamás; Borkovits, Tamás; Forgács-Dajka, Emese; Sztakovics, János; Bódi, Attila, 2022, MNRAS, 509, 246
| ADS | arXiv |
First results on RR Lyrae stars with the TESS space telescope: untangling the connections between mode content, colors and distances
Molnár, L.; Bódi, A.; Pál, A.; Bhardwaj, A.; Hambsch, F-J.; Benkő, J. M.; Derekas, A.; Ebadi, M.; Joyce, M.; Hasanzadeh, A.; Kolenberg, K.; Lund, M. B.; Nemec, J. M.; Netzel, H.; Ngeow, C-C.; Pepper, J.; Plachy, E.; Prudil, Z.; Siverd, R. J.; Skarka, M., Smolec, R.; Sódor, Á.; Sylla, S.; Szabó, P.; Szabó, R.; Kjeldsen, H.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Ricker, G. R., 2022, ApJS, 258, 8
| ADS | arXiv |

- 2021 -

Ground-based observations of the ZZ Ceti star HS 1625+1231
Kalup, Csilla, Bognár, Zsófia, Sódor, Ádám, 2021, Acta Astr., 71, 281
| ADS | arXiv |