MOCKA — A PLATO mock asteroseismic catalogue of intermediate to massive stars

With ESA’s PLATO space mission set for launch in December 2026, a new photometric legacy and a future of new scientific discoveries awaits. By exploring scientific topics distinct from the Core Science programme, the scientific component coined the PLATO Complementary Science programme (PLATO-CS) provides a unique opportunity to maximise the scientific yield of the mission. PLATO-CS will be available to researchers worldwide through a Guest Observer (GO) programme. In this oral contribution, we highlight PLATO’s potential regarding the topic of pulsating stars across the HR diagram outside the Core programme. Specifically, a PLATO mock asteroseismic catalogue (MOCKA) of intermediate to massive stars will be presented as a first benchmark to quantitatively highlight the potential of PLATO-CS. MOCKA is based on a magnitude-limited (G < 17) Gaia catalogue and is a product of realistic end-to-end PlatoSim simulations of stars from the first (minimum 2-year duration; southern hemisphere) pointing field of PLATO. We will provide a detailed discussion of the oscillation mode detectability for gravity-mode pulsators, whose pulsations primarily trace the radiative region near the convective core boundary, thus making them unique stellar laboratories to study internal structure and evolution. Prior to mission launch, activities like MOCKA help us understand the limits of the mission as well as highlight the opportunities to push astrophysics beyond current stellar models.