Asteroseismology of hot b subdwarf stars: A brief overview

We present a short review of where we currently stand on the front of the asteroseismology of hot B subdwarf (sdB) stars. Although the rapidly pulsating sdB stars have been discovered relatively recently (1997), they have quickly turned out to be exceptional laboratories for asteroseismology, to the point where complete mode identification has been claimed and detailed seismic models have been built for at least nine objects so far. These all belong to the category of short-period (80-400 s) p-mode pulsators. In the case of the second family of pulsating sdB stars discovered in 2002 only, the long-period (2000-9000 s) g-mode pulsators, their asteroseismological potential appears more difficult to tap as many fewer pulsation cycles can be accumulated from the ground. Progress on this other front is most likely to come from space observations. In due time, it is very likely that a detailed understanding of these two families of pulsating stars will shed a new light on the still unknown processes at the origin of the sdB stellar class as a whole.