Cole Johnston Interior Modelling of Massive Stars in Multiple Systems

Annotation

This thesis by Cole Johnston brings novel insights into the inner workings of young massive stars. By bridging the observational fields of binary stars and asteroseismology this thesis uses state of the art statistical techniques to scrutinise  theories of modern stellar astrophysics. Developing upon the commonly used isochrone fitting methodology, the author introduces the idea of isochrone cloud fitting in order to account for the full breadth of physics observed in stars. The author combines this methodology with gravity mode asteroseismic analysis to asses the level of chemical mixing deep within the stellar core in order to determine the star's age and core mass. Wrapped into a robust statistical framework to account for correlations, this methodology is employed to analyse individual stars, multiple systems, and clusters alike to demonstrate that chemical mixing has dramatic impact on stellar structure and evolution.