Meredith L. Rawls edited Introduction.tex  over 8 years ago

Commit id: 96a6f62c492ea75d35b1ae7ea9758174f8900705

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\emph{Kepler}'s primary science goal is to find Earth-like exoplanets orbiting sun-like stars \citep{bor10}. However, in addition to successes in planet-hunting and suitability for red giant asteroseismology, \emph{Kepler} is also incredibly useful for studies of eclipsing binary stars. \emph{Kepler} has discovered numerous long-period eclipsing systems from consistent target monitoring over several years \citep{prs11,sla11}. Eclipsing binaries are important tools for understanding fundamental stellar properties, testing stellar evolutionary models, and determining distances. When radial velocity curves exist for both stars in an eclipsing binary, along with a well-sampled light curve, the inclination is precisely constrained and a full orbital solution with masses and radii can be found. Kepler's third law applied in this way is the \emph{only} direct method for measuring stellar masses.  Taken together, red giants in eclipsing binaries (hereafter RG/EBs) that exhibit solar-like oscillations are ideal testbeds for asteroseismology. There are presently 18 known RG/EBs that show solar-like oscillations \citep{hek10,gau13,gau14,bec14} \citep{hek10,gau13,gau14,bec14a,bec14b}  with orbital periods ranging from 15 to 1058 days, all found in the \emph{Kepler} field of view. In this paper, we present physical parameters for the unique RG/EB KIC 9246715 with a combination of dynamical modeling, stellar atmosphere modeling, and asteroseismology. KIC 9246715 contains two nearly-identical red giants in a 171-day eccentric orbit with a single main set of solar-like oscillations. A second set of oscillations, presumably attributable to the other star, is marginally detected. In \S \ref{data}, we describe how we acquire and process photometric and spectroscopic data, and \S \ref{rvs} explains our radial velocity extraction process. In \S \ref{atm}, we disentangle each star's contribution to the spectra to perform stellar atmosphere modeling. We then present our final orbital solution and physical parameters for KIC 9246715 in \S \ref{model}. Finally, \S \ref{discuss} compares our results with global asteroseismology and discusses the connection among solar-like oscillations, stellar evolution, and effects such as star spots and tidal forces, as well as implications for future RG/EB studies.