BAFFLES: Bayesian Ages for Field Lower-mass Stars

Age is a fundamental parameter of stars, yet in many cases, ages of individual stars are presented without robust estimates of the uncertainty. We have developed a Bayesian framework, BAFFLES, to produce the age posterior for a star from its calcium emission strength (log( )) or lithium abundance (L...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2020-07, Vol.898 (1), p.27
Main Authors: Stanford-Moore, S. Adam, Nielsen, Eric L., De Rosa, Robert J., Macintosh, Bruce, Czekala, Ian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Astrophysics
Baffles
Bayesian analysis
Bayesian statistics
Calcium
Chronology
Conditional probability
Field stars
Lithium
Probability distribution
Robustness
Star & galaxy formation
Star formation
Star formation rate
Stellar activity
Stellar age
Stellar ages
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Summary:Age is a fundamental parameter of stars, yet in many cases, ages of individual stars are presented without robust estimates of the uncertainty. We have developed a Bayesian framework, BAFFLES, to produce the age posterior for a star from its calcium emission strength (log( )) or lithium abundance (Li EW) and B − V color. We empirically determine the likelihood functions for calcium and lithium as functions of age from literature measurements of stars in benchmark clusters with well-determined ages. We use a uniform prior on age, which reflects a uniform star formation rate. The age posteriors we derive for several test cases are consistent with literature ages found from other methods. BAFFLES represents a robust method to determine the age posterior probability distribution for any field star with 0.45 ≤ B − V ≤ 0.9 and a measurement of and/or 0.35 ≤ B − V ≤ 1.9 and measured Li EW. We compile colors, , and Li EW from over 2630 nearby field stars from the literature, and present the derived BAFFLES age posterior for each star.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ab9a35