Prospects for Galactic and stellar astrophysics with asteroseismology of giant stars in the \(\it{TESS}\) Continuous Viewing Zones and beyond

The NASA-\(\it{TESS}\) mission presents a treasure trove for understanding the stars it observes and the Milky Way, in which they reside. We present a first look at the prospects for Galactic and stellar astrophysics by performing initial asteroseismic analyses of bright (\(G < 11\)) red giant stars in the \(\it{TESS}\) Southern Continuous Viewing Zone (SCVZ). Using three independent pipelines, we detect \(\nu_{\mathrm{max}}\) and \(\Delta\nu\) in 41% of the 15,405 star parent sample (6,388 stars), with consistency at a level of \(\sim 2\%\) in \(\nu_{\mathrm{max}}\) and \(\sim 5\%\) in \(\Delta\nu\). Based on this, we predict that seismology will be attainable for \(\sim 3\times10^{5}\) giants across the whole sky, subject to improvements in analysis and data reduction techniques. The best quality \(\it{TESS}\)-CVZ data, for 5,574 stars where pipelines returned consistent results, provide high quality power spectra across a number of stellar evolutionary states. This makes possible studies of, for example, the Asymptotic Giant Branch bump (AGBb). We demonstrate that mixed \(\ell=1\) modes and rotational splitting are cleanly observed in the 1-year data set. By combining \(\it{TESS}\)-CVZ data with \(\it{TESS}\)-HERMES, \(\it{SkyMapper}\), APOGEE and \(\it{Gaia}\) we demonstrate the potential for Galactic archaeology studies using the data, which provides good age precision and accuracy that reproduces the age of high \(\mathrm{[\alpha/Fe]}\) stars and relationships between mass and kinematics from studies based on \(\it{Kepler}\). Better quality astrometry and simpler target selection than the \(\it{Kepler}\) sample makes this data ideal for studies of the local star formation history and evolution of the Galactic disc. These results provide a strong case for detailed spectroscopic follow-up in the CVZs to complement that which has been (or will be) collected by current surveys. [Abridged]