Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

From Young And Hot To Old And Cold: Comparing White Dwarf Cooling Theory To Main-Sequence Stellar Evolution In Open Clusters, Ted Von Hippel

Publications

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 to 4 Gyr. I find good agreement between white dwarf and main-sequence evolutionary ages over the entire age range currently available for study. I also find that directly comparing main-sequence turnoff ages to white dwarf ages is only weakly sensitive to realistic levels of errors in cluster distance, metallicity, and reddening. Additional detailed comparisons between white dwarf and main-sequence ages have tremendous potential to refine …