Related papers: Globular cluster absolute ages from cooling brown …
In previous papers of the series we used a combination of optical and near-infrared colours to derive constraints on the relative age structure in globular cluster systems. Here, we present the details, strength and limitations of our…
We present a study of the properties of the star-cluster systems around pseudo-bulges of late-type spiral galaxies using a sample of 11 galaxies with distances from 17 to 37 Mpc. Star clusters are identified from multiband HST ACS and WFPC2…
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 report here initial but still strongly conclusive results on absolute ages of galactic globular clusters (GGCs). This study is based on high precision trigonometric parallaxes from the HIPPARCOS satellite coupled with accurate metal…
We discuss some of the key open questions regarding the formation and evolution of globular clusters (GCs) during galaxy formation and assembly within a cosmological framework. The current state-of-the-art for both observations and…
Very deep images of the Galactic globular cluster M4 (NGC 6121) through the F606W and F814W filters were taken in 2001 with the WFPC2 on board the HST. A first published analysis of this data set (Richer et al. 2002) produced the result…
The ages of globular clusters inferred from observations depends sensitively on assumptions like the initial helium abundance and the mass loss rate. A high helium abundance (e.g., $Y\approx$0.28) or a mass loss rate of…
Brown dwarfs are natural clocks, cooling and dimming over time due to insufficient core fusion. They are also numerous and present in nearly all Galactic environments, making them potentially useful chronometers for a variety of Galactic…
Visual and near-infrared colours are used to identify intermediate-age globular cluster in early-type galaxies. In NGC5846 and NGC4365 colour-colour diagrams (V-I vs. V-K) reveal a sub-population in the globular cluster systems with an age…
One of the largest sources of uncertainty in the computation of globular cluster isochrones and hence in the age determination of globular clusters is the lack of a rigorous description of convection. Therefore, we calibrated the…
Globular clusters contain vast repositories of metal-poor stars that represent some of the oldest stellar generations in the Universe. The archaeological footprint of early Galactic evolution may be retained in the measurable properties of…
We have used the ``dynamical clock'' to measure the level of dynamical evolution reached by three Galactic globular clusters (namely, NGC 3201, NGC 6316 and NGC 6440). This is an empirical method that quantifies the level of central…
Globular clusters (GCs) are some of the oldest bound structures in the Universe, holding clues to the earliest epochs of star formation and galaxy assembly. However, accurate age measurements of ancient clusters are challenging due to the…
We present an exploration of the significance of Carbon/Oxygen phase separation in white dwarf stars in the context of self-consistent evolutionary calculations. Because phase separation can potentially increase the calculated ages of the…
A new grid of theoretical isochrones based on the Yale stellar evolution code using the OPAL and Kurucz opacities has been constructed. The grid of isochrones spans a wide range of metallicities, helium abundances and masses. The…
The formation of globular clusters (GC) with their multiple stellar populations remains a puzzling, unsolved problem in astrophysics. One way to gather critical insight consists in finding sizable numbers of GC progenitors (GCP) while still…
We use 10 orbits of Advanced Camera for Surveys observations to reach the end of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the solar-metallicity open cluster NGC 2158. Our photometry and completeness tests show that the end falls at magnitude…
Blue Straggler Stars (BSS) are among the brightest and more massive stars in globular clusters (GCs). For this reason they represent an ideal tool to probe the dynamical evolution of these stellar systems. Here I show, following the results…
I propose and apply a method for deriving ages of the metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) in a distance-independent way, which is based on age indicator related to the main sequence in the two-color diagrams with U-B index. Age of the…
The large majority of extragalactic star cluster studies done to date have essentially used two or three-passband aperture photometry, combined with theoretical stellar population synthesis models, to obtain age estimates. The accuracy to…