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We present constraints on the variability and binarity of young stars in the central 10 arcseconds (~0.4 pc) of the Milky Way Galactic Center (GC) using Keck Adaptive Optics data over a 12 year baseline. Given our experiment's photometric…
The ages of star clusters and co-moving stellar groups contain essential information about the Milky Way. Their special properties make them excellent tracers of galactic structure and key components to unlocking its star formation history.…
We exploit the most robust, old, and cosmology-independent age estimates of individual stars from Gaia DR3 to place a lower bound on the age of the Universe, $t_U$. These constraints can serve as an anchor point for any cosmological model,…
Contamination from nearby sources often compromises stellar rotation periods derived from photometric light curves, particularly in data with large pixel scales such as TESS. This problem is compounded when both the target and contaminant…
We present the result of a survey of Monte Carlo simulations of globular clusters hosting two generations of stars including a large (f_b=50%) fraction of primordial binaries in both populations. The dynamical evolution of the two stellar…
Globular Clusters (GCs) in the Milky Way are the primary laboratories for establishing the ages of the oldest stellar populations and for measuring the color-magnitude relation of stars. In infrared (IR) color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), the…
Observations of binaries have traditionally provided the means for ascertaining stellar masses. Here, we use the published data on 8 pre-main-sequence pairs to gauge the accuracy of our own, recently calculated, evolutionary tracks (Palla &…
Estimating ages for stars is difficult at best, but Galactic problems have their own requirements that go beyond those for other areas of astrophysics. As in other areas, asteroseismology is helping, and in this review I discuss some of the…
The ages of stars have historically relied on isochrone fitting of standardised grids of models. While these stellar models have provided key constraints on observational samples of massive stars, they inherit many systematic uncertainties,…
We use the Geneva Syclist isochrone models that include the effects of stellar rotation to investigate the role that rotation has on the resulting colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) of young and intermediate age clusters. We find that if a…
Our picture of the age-metallicity relation for Milky Way globular clusters (MWGCs) is still highly incomplete, and the majority of MWGCs lack self-consistent age measurements. Here, we exploit deep, homogenous multi-epoch Hubble Space…
We propose a simple interpretation of the rotation period data for solar- and late-type stars. The open cluster and Mt. Wilson star observations suggest that rotating stars lie primarily on two sequences, initially called I and C. Some…
Ages are key to truly understand a large plethora of astrophysical phenomena. On the other hand, stellar clusters are open windows to understand stellar evolution, specifically, the change with time and mass of different stellar properties.…
We propose a novel method for determining the ages of low-mass, pre-main sequence stellar systems using the apsidal motion of low-mass detached eclipsing binaries. The apsidal motion of a binary system with an eccentric orbit provides…
Astronomers have constructed models of globular clusters for over 100 years. These models mainly fall into two categories: (i) static models, such as King's model and its variants, and (ii) evolutionary models. Most attention has been given…
We present new age and mass estimates for 920 stellar clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) based on previously published broad-band photometry and the stellar cluster analysis package, MASSCLEANage. Expressed in the generic fitting…
In a search of proper motion catalogs for common proper motion stars in the field of the Kepler spacecraft I identified 93 likely binary systems. A comparison of their rotation periods is a test of the gyrochronology concept. To find their…
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…
Star clusters are the building blocks of galaxies. They are composed of stars of nearly equal age and chemical composition, allowing us to use them as chronometers and as testbeds for gauging stellar evolution. It has become clear recently…
The age-metallicity relation of the solar neighbourhood is studied using a sample of 552 late-type dwarfs. This sample was built from the intersection of photometric catalogues with chromospheric activity surveys of the Mount Wilson group.…