Impact of helium diffusion and helium-flash-induced carbon production on gravity-mode pulsations in subdwarf B stars

Context. Realistic stellar models are essential to the forward modelling approach in asteroseismology. For practicality however, certain model assumptions are also required. For example, in the case of subdwarf B stars, one usually starts with zero-age horizontal branch structures without following the progenitor evolution. Aim s. We analyse the effects of common assumptions in subdwarf B models on the g-mode pulsational properties. We investigate if and how the pulsation periods are affected by the H-profile in the core-envelope transition zone. Furthermore, the effects of Cproduction and convective mixing during the core helium flash are evaluated. Finally, we reanalyse the effects of stellar opacities on the mode excitation in subdwarf B stars. M ethods. We computed detailed stellar evolutionary models of subdwarf B stars, and their non-adiabatic pulsational properties. Atomic diffusion of H and He is included consistently during the evolution calculations. The number fractions of Fe and Ni are gradually increased by up to a factor of 10 around log T = 5.3. This is necessary for mode excitation and to approximate the resulting effects of radiative levitation. We performed a pulsational stability analysis on a grid of subdwarf B models constructed with OPAL