Related papers: On the evolutionary status of lambda Bootis stars …
Knowledge of ages for stars formed over a galaxy's lifetime is fundamental to understand its formation and evolution. However, stellar ages are difficult to obtain since they cannot be measured from observations, being comparison with…
We show that for young stars which are still accreting and for which measurements of stellar age, disc mass and accretion rate are available, nominal disc age (Disc Age = Disc Mass / Accretion Rate) is approximately equal to the stellar…
Over the past year, we have conducted a multi-faceted program to investigate the origin and early evolution of brown dwarfs. Using high-resolution Keck optical spectra of ~30 objects near and below the sub-stellar boundary in several…
The long-term evolution of stellar orbits bound to a massive centre is studied in order to understand the cores of star clusters in central regions of galaxies. Stellar trajectories undergo tiny perturbation, the origin of which is twofold:…
The abundance anomalies in lambda Boo stars are popularly explained by element-specific mass inflows at rates that are much greater than empirically-inferred bounds for interstellar accretion. Therefore, a lambda Boo star's thin outer…
Hipparcos parallaxes fix distances to individual stars in the Hyades cluster with an accuracy of 6%. We use the Hipparcos (and Tycho-2) proper motions, which have a larger relative precision than the trigonometric parallaxes, to derive ~3…
The ages of young star clusters are fundamental clocks to constrain the formation and evolution of pre-main-sequence stars and their protoplanetary disks and exoplanets. However, dating methods for very young clusters often disagree,…
Compact binaries have long been a paradigm for accretion theory. Much of our present view of how accretion occurs comes directly from the comparison of theory with observations of these sources. Since theory differs little for other objects…
We review recent theoretical progress aimed at understanding the formation and the early stages of evolution of giant planets, low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. Calculations coupling giant planet formation, within a modern version of the…
Context. Most observational studies so far point towards brown dwarfs sharing a similar formation mechanism as the one accepted for low mass stars. However, larger databases and more systematic studies are needed before strong conclusions…
Using the Yale stellar evolution code, we have calculated theoretical models for nearby stars with planetary-mass companions in short-period nearly circular orbits: 51 Pegasi, Tau Bootis, Upsilon Andromedae, Rho Cancri, and Rho Coronae…
We investigate the rotational evolution of young stars through Monte Carlo simulations. We simulate 280,000 stars, each of which is assigned a mass, a rotational period, and a mass accretion rate. The mass accretion rate depends on mass and…
Star-disk interaction is thought to drive the angular momentum evolution of young stars. In this review, I present the latest results obtained on the rotational properties of low mass and very low mass pre-main sequence stars. I discuss the…
We detect the second known lambda Bootis star (HD 54272) which exhibits gamma Doradus-type pulsations. The star was formerly misidentified as a RR Lyrae variable. The lambda Bootis stars are a small group (only 2 per cent) of late B to…
The velocity distribution of nearby stars contains many "moving groups" that are inconsistent with the standard assumption of an axisymmetric, time-independent, and steady-state Galaxy. We study the age and metallicity properties of the…
Rotation period measurements of low-mass stars show that the spin distributions in young clusters do not exhibit the spin-up expected due to contraction, during the phase when a large fraction of stars are still surrounded by accretion…
We present a grid of evolutionary calculations for metal-poor low-mass stars for a variety of initial helium and metal abundances. The intention is mainly to provide a database for deriving directly stellar ages of halo and globular cluster…
Age is one of the most fundamental parameters of stars, yet it is one of the hardest to determine as it requires modelling various aspects of stellar formation and evolution. When we compare the ages derived from isochronal and dynamical…
In this paper, I present and discuss some recent observational results which may have important implications for our understanding of late phases of binary evolution.
It takes years of effort employing the best telescopes and instruments to obtain high-quality stellar photometry, astrometry, and spectroscopy. Stellar evolution models contain the experience of lifetimes of theoretical calculations and…