A test of the asteroseismic νmax scaling relation for solar-like oscillations in main-sequence and subgiant stars

Large-scale analyses of stellar samples comprised of cool, solar-like oscillators now commonly utilize the so-called asteroseismic scaling relations to estimate fundamental stellar properties. In this paper, we present a test of the scaling relation for the global asteroseismic parameter ν_max, the frequency at which a solar-like oscillator presents its strongest observed pulsation amplitude. The classic relation assumes that this characteristic frequency scales with a particular combination of surface gravity and effective temperature that also describes the dependence of the cut-off frequency for acoustic waves in an isothermal atmosphere, i.e. ν _max ∝ gT_eff^{-1/2}. We test how well the oscillations of cool main-sequence and subgiant stars adhere to this relation, using a sample of asteroseismic targets observed by the NASA Kepler Mission. Our results, which come from a grid-based analysis, rule out departures from the classic gT_eff^{-1/2} scaling dependence at the level of ≃1.5 per cent over the full ≃ 1560 K range in T_eff that we tested. There is some uncertainty over the absolute calibration of the scaling. However, any variation with T_eff is evidently small, with limits similar to those above.