Asteroseismology of Exoplanets Host Stars: the Special Case of Ι Horologii (hd17051)

This paper presents detailed analysis and modelisation of the star HD17051 (alias ι Hor), which appears as a specially interesting case among exoplanet host stars. As most of these stars, ι Hor presents a metallicity excess which has been measured by various observers who give different results, ranging from [Fe/H] = 0.11 to 0.26, associated with different atmospheric parameters. Meanwhile the luminosity of the star may be determined owing to Hipparcos parallax. Although in the southern hemisphere, this star belongs to the Hyades stream and its external parameters show that it could even be one of the Hyades stars ejected during cluster formation. The aim of this work was to gather and analyse our present knowledge on this star and to prepare seismic tests for future observations with the HARPS spectrometer (planned for November 2006). We have computed evolutionary tracks with various metallicities, in the two frameworks of primordial overmetallicity and accretion. We have concentrated on models inside the error boxes given by the various observers in the log g log Teff diagram. We then computed the adiabatic oscillation frequencies of these models to prepare future observations. The detailed analysis of ι Hor presented in this paper already allowed to constrain its external parameters, mass and age. Some values given in the literature could be rejected as inconsistent with the overall analysis. We found that a model computed with the Hyades parameters (age, metallicity) was clearly acceptable, but other ones were possible too. We are confident that observations with HARPS will allow for a clear conclusion about this star and that it will bring important new light on the physics of exoplanet host stars.