Comment on the Feasibility of Carbon Burning in Betelgeuse

Abstract

The recent pre-print (version published to arxiv on 2023 June 3rd) by Saio et al. argues that the supergiant Betelgeuse is already undergoing carbon burning, based the assumption that all of its light variations are caused by radial pulsations. However, the angular diameter measurements of the star are in conflict with the stellar radius required by their models, as we show in this note. We discuss the feasibility that the Great Dimming was caused by constructive mode interference using long-term brightness measurements and comment on differences in modeling frameworks adopted in Saio et al. versus Joyce et al.