Advances in stellar interiors physics and evolution have been made possible by asteroseismology, the study of stars by the observation of their natural, resonant oscillations. In particular, asteroseismology is vastly benefiting the modeling of red-giant stars, whose oscillations hold detailed information on their fundamental parameters (radii, masses, and ages). The advent of NASA’s TESS (launched in 2018) and ESA’s PLATO (scheduled for 2026) space missions promises to raise the yield of oscillating red giants to several hundreds of thousands, an order of magnitude increase over previous missions combined. Therefore, red-giant asteroseismology is bound to have a profound impact on modern astrophysics in the coming decade, notably on the fields of exoplanetary science and Galactic archaeology, which rely on a precise knowledge of stellar fundamental parameters.

Research goals, methods, and innovation
Taking advantage of the unmatched precision on stellar fundamental parameters attainable by asteroseismology (core innovation aspect), I will make use of TESS and PLATO (ultra-precise) photometry of red giants to constrain post-main-sequence planetary system evolution (research line 1; RL1) and enable the time-resolved investigation of Galactic disk chemodynamical features (research line 2; RL2):

RL1. I will conduct an all-sky survey combining asteroseismology and transit photometry to detect and characterize gas-giant planets orbiting red giants. This will allow addressing two key open questions in exoplanetary science, namely: (i) the occurrence of gas-giant planets as a function of stellar mass, metallicity, and evolution; and (ii) the nature of the hot-Jupiter inflation mechanism.

RL2. I will combine seismic ages, astrometry and kinematics from ESA’s Gaia mission, and chemical abundances from the APOGEE survey, on a large sample of red giants, to produce the first all-sky, high-resolution chrono-chemo-kinematic map of the Milky Way disk. This will allow addressing two key open questions in Galactic archaeology, namely: (i) the origin of the two chemically distinct disk populations; and (ii) the efficiency of radial migration across the disk.

Impact and timeliness
This project will not only impact our knowledge of the life cycle of planetary systems (RL1), but also advance our understanding of the assembly history of the Galaxy (RL2), taking us beyond the state of the art. TESS and PLATO are the only missions that will provide seismic constraints on red giants in the coming decade. My scientific leadership within both consortia thus puts me in an ideal position to coordinate this effort internationally.

Societal dimension
Finally, I will develop an educational program in collaboration with the Portuguese Language — Office of Astronomy for Development (PLOAD). The program will consist of a series of webinars targeting school-aged children in Portuguese-speaking African countries, enabling dissemination of the project’s research output.