A comparison of the anelastic and subseismic approximations for low-frequency gravity modes in stars

A comparative study of the properties of the anelastic and subseismic approximations is presented. The anelastic approximation is commonly used in astrophysics in compressible convection studies, whereas the subseismic approximation comes from geophysics where it is used to describe long-period seismic oscillations propagating in the Earth's outer fluid core. Both approximations aim to filter out the acoustic waves while retaining the density variations of the equilibrium configuration. However, they disagree on the form of the equation of mass conservation. We show here that the anelastic approximation is in fact the only consistent approximation as far as stellar low-frequency oscillations are concerned. We also show that this approximation implies Cowling's approximation which neglects perturbations of the gravity held. Examples are given to demonstrate the efficiency of the anelastic approximation.