Related papers: A Splinter Session on the Thorny Problem of Stella…
Stellar ages are key for determining the formation history of the Milky Way, but are difficult to measure precisely. Furthermore, methods that use chemical abundances to infer ages may entangle the intrinsic evolution of stars with the…
Determining the sequence of events in the formation of stars and planetary systems and their time-scales is essential for understanding those processes, yet establishing ages is fundamentally difficult because we lack direct indicators. In…
We provide a review of the current status of several topics on the ages, distances, and mass functions of open clusters, with a particular emphasis on illuminating the areas of uncertainty. Hipparcos has obtained parallaxes for nearby open…
We discuss the present state of knowledge and thought concerning the spread in age found among Galactic globular clusters, with some discussion of the implications for what happened during the earliest stages of the formation of the Milky…
Variability is a defining characteristic of young stellar systems, and optical variability has been heavily studied to select and characterize the photospheric properties of young stars. In recent years, multi-epoch observations sampling a…
The promise of gyrochronology is that given a star's rotation period and mass, its age can be inferred. The reality of gyrochronology is complicated by effects other than ordinary magnetized braking that alter stellar rotation periods. In…
We summarize here the discussions around photospheric constraints, current uncertainties in models of stellar atmospheres, and reports on ongoing spectroscopic surveys. Rather than a panorama of the state of the art, we chose to present a…
The ages of the most common stars - low-mass (cool) stars like the Sun, and smaller - are difficult to derive because traditional dating methods use stellar properties that either change little as the stars age or are hard to measure. The…
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…
It is well known that, when analyzed at the light of current synthesis model predictions, variations in the physical properties of single stellar populations (e.g. age, metallicity, initial mass function, element abundance ratios) may have…
We review five independent techniques which are used to set the distance scale to globular clusters, including subdwarf main sequence fitting utilizing the recent Hipparcos parallax catalogue. These data together all indicate that globular…
I summarize in terms of evolutionary population synthesis models our current understanding of stellar populations in different environments, from star clusters in nearby galaxies to distant galaxies in clusters or seen through gravitational…
Radio observations of cool stellar systems provide unique information on their magnetic fields, high-energy processes, and chemistry. Buoyed by powerful new instruments (e.g. ALMA, JVLA, LOFAR), advances in related fields (e.g., the Gaia…
During this last decade our knowledge of the evolutionary properties of stars has significantly improved. This result has been achieved thanks to our improved understanding of the physical behavior of stellar matter in the thermal regimes…
Numerous physical aspects of stellar physics have been presented in Ses- sion 2 and the underlying uncertainties have been tentatively assessed. We try here to highlight some specific points raised after the talks and during the general…
The rotation rate, level of magnetic activity and surface lithium abundance are age-dependent quantities in stars of about a solar mass and below. The physical reasons for the evolution of these phenomena are qualitatively understood, but…
In this review, I will discuss a few problems which point to the need for improved stellar evolution models of halo stars. Current stellar evolution models do not match the observed $^7$Li abundance patterns, suggesting that the input…
Stellar populations contain the most important information about star clus- ter formation and evolution. Until several decades ago, star clusters were believed to be ideal laboratories for studies of simple stellar populations (SSPs).…
I present a brief overview of observational, modeling and theoretical issues related to ageing calculations based on spectral steepening. These include problems such as inhomogeneous magnetic fields, diffusion of relativistic particles,…
We report the results of a detailed numerical study designed to estimate both the absolute age and the uncertainty in age (with confidence limits) of the oldest globular clusters. Such an estimate is essential if a comparison with the…