English

New Methods for Determining the Ages of PMS Stars

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2009-09-10 v1 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Abstract

We present three new methods for determining the age of groups of pre-main-sequence stars. The first, creating empirical isochrones allows us to create a robust age ordering, but not to derive actual ages. The second, using the width of the gap in colour-magnitude space between the pre-main-sequence and main-sequence (the radiative convective gap) has promise as a distance and extinction independent measure of age, but is as yet uncalibrated. Finally we discuss tau-squared fitting of the main sequence as the stars approach the terminus of the main sequence. This method suggests that there is a factor two difference between these "nuclear" ages, and more conventional pre-main-sequence contraction ages.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0909.1746,
  title  = {New Methods for Determining the Ages of PMS Stars},
  author = {Tim Naylor and N. J. Mayne and R. D. Jeffries and S. P. Littlefair and Eric S. Saunders},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.1746},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

6 pages, 3 figures