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Gyrochronology and its usage for main sequence field star ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Sydney A. Barnes
Sydney A. Barnes*
Affiliation:
Lowell Observatory, 1400 W. Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA email: barnes@lowell.edu
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Abstract

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The construction of all age indicators consists of certain basic steps which lead to the identification of the properties desirable for stellar age indicators. Prior age indicators for main sequence field stars possess only some of these properties. The measured rotation periods of cool stars are particularly useful in this respect because they have well-defined dependencies that allow stellar ages to be determined with ~20% errors. This method, called gyrochronology, is explained informally in this talk, shown to have the desired properties, compared to prior methods, and used to derive ages for samples of main sequence field stars.

Keywords

stars: activitystars: binariesstars: evolutionstars: fundamental parametersstars: individual (ξ Boo, 61 Cyg, α Cen, 36 Oph)stars: late-typestars: rotation
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 4 , Symposium S258: The Ages of Stars , October 2008 , pp. 345 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2009

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