Asteroseismology of stellar populations in the Milky Way


The Milky Way provides a unique opportunity to study in detail how a
giant spiral galaxy is assembled and how it evolves. Our current
understanding of Galactic formation and evolution is severely hampered
by a lack of precise observations of basic stellar properties such as
distances, masses, and ages. GAIA will shortly overcome current
limitations associated with estimating distances to stars, however,
accurate age determination of individual field stars will still be a
major obstacle to our understanding the Milky Way. Asteroseismology
provides the way forward.

Average seismic constraints now available for thousands of G-K giants
with CoRoT and Kepler make possible the accurate and precise
determination of stellar radii and masses.  We argue that G-K giants
showing solar-like oscillations represent a new class of accurate
distance indicators. Thanks to CoRoT and Kepler observations we can
now map the position of thousands of stars in different regions of the
Milky Way. Moreover, since the ages of stars on the red-giant branch
are primarily a function of their mass, the availability of seismic
constraints makes G-K giants precise age indicators. To improve the
accuracy of age estimates thorough tests of stellar models need to be
carried out. I will discuss how a combination of seismic and
spectroscopic constraints can help in this respect.