Related papers: Semi-empirical white dwarf initial-final mass rela…
Cooling ages of white dwarfs are routinely determined by mapping effective temperatures and masses to ages using evolutionary models. Typically, the reported uncertainties on cooling ages only consider the error propagation of the…
The fundamental properties of stellar clusters, such as the age or the total initial mass in stars, are often inferred from population synthesis models. The predicted properties are then used to constrain the physical mechanisms involved in…
In this paper we show the results of a large set of N-body simulations modelling the evolution of globular clusters driven by relaxation,stellar evolution,disk shocking and including the effects of the tidal field of the Galaxy. We…
The study of the stellar formation history in the solar neighborhood is a powerful technique to recover information about the early stages and evolution of the Milky Way. We present a new method which consists of directly probing the…
By introducing a simplified transport model of outer layers of white dwarfs we derive an analytical semi-empirical relation which constrains effective temperature-mass-radius for white dwarfs. This relation is used to classify recent data…
I explore the current ability of both white dwarf cooling theory and main sequence stellar evolution theory to accurately determine stellar population ages by comparing ages derived using both techniques for open clusters ranging from 0.1…
We present the results of a photometric and spectroscopic study of the white dwarf candidate members of the intermediate age open clusters NGC3532 and NGC2287. Of the nine objects investigated, it is determined that six are probable members…
Deriving precise stellar ages is a challenging task. Consequently, age-dependent relations - such as the age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relations of the Milky Way, or the age-rotation-activity relation of low-mass stars - are…
White dwarf stars constitute the final evolutionary stage for more than 95 per cent of all stars. The Galactic population of white dwarfs conveys a wealth of information about several fundamental issues and are of vital importance to study…
The initial mass-final mass relationship (IFMR) of white dwarfs (WD) represents a crucial benchmark for stellar evolution models, especially for the efficiency of mixing episodes and mass loss during the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase.…
We use N-body simulations to model the 12 Gyr evolution of a suite of star clusters with identical initial stellar mass functions over a range of initial cluster masses, sizes, and orbits. Our models reproduce the distribution of…
The precise measurement of the masses and radii of stars in eclipsing binary systems provides a window into uncertain processes in stellar evolution, especially mixing at convective boundaries. Recently, these data have been used to…
In this last decade, our knowledge of evolutionary and structural properties of stars of different mass and chemical composition is significantly improved. This result has been achieved as a consequence of our improved capability in…
We have expanded the sample of observed white dwarfs in the rich open cluster NGC 2099 (M37) with the Keck Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer. Of 20 white dwarf candidates, the spectroscopy shows 19 to be true white dwarfs with 14 of these…
We construct a set of binary evolutionary sequences for systems composed by a normal, solar composition, donor star together with a neutron star. We consider a variety of masses for each star as well as for the initial orbital period…
We present new observations of very faint white dwarfs (WDs) in the rich open star cluster NGC 2099 (M37). Following deep, wide field imaging of the cluster using CFHT, we have now obtained spectroscopic observations of candidate WDs using…
We revisit the properties and astrophysical implications of the field white dwarf mass distribution in preparation of Gaia applications. Our study is based on the two samples with the best established completeness and most precise…
Many current stellar evolution models assume some dependence of the strength of convective core overshooting on mass for stars more massive than 1.1-1.2 solar masses, but the adopted shapes for that relation have remained somewhat arbitrary…
White dwarfs are excellent forensic tools for studying end-of-life issues surrounding low- and intermediate-mass stars, and the old, solar-metallicity open star cluster Messier 67 is a proven laboratory for the study of stellar evolution…
The initial-final mass relation (IFMR) links a star's birth mass to the mass of its white dwarf (WD) remnant, providing key constraints on stellar evolution. Open clusters offer the most straightforward way to empirically determine the…