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arXiv 2603.07481astro-ph.SR
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球状星团年龄测定的新方法:棕矮星冷却序列

New Way to Date Globular Clusters: Brown Dwarf Cooling Sequences

University of Notre Dame(圣母大学)

Roman Gerasimov

AI总结:

利用詹姆斯·韦伯空间望远镜的多波段成像数据,提出一种基于似然的直方图自由方法,通过棕矮星冷却行为测定球状星团年龄,有效降低系统误差,提升年龄测定精度。

摘要:

作为银河系最古老的构成单元,球状星团保留了早期恒星环境的考古痕迹。准确测定球状星团的绝对年龄对于解读这一古老记录至关重要。现有年龄测定技术常产生精确但不一致的年龄,暗示系统误差超过10亿年。詹姆斯·韦伯空间望远镜(JWST)开启了一种新的测定方法,利用此前不可观测的棕矮星成员的冷却行为。该方法通过大量独立的系统误差提供了一种新的一致性检验,用于更成熟的方法。我提出了一种基于似然的直方图自由方法,利用JWST多波段成像数据测定球状星团成员的年龄,这些成员接近或低于氢燃烧极限。通过将该方法应用于大量模拟观测,我证明对于邻近的球状星团,形式年龄误差(即仅基于测量不确定性的误差)可低于0.2 Gyr。我还评估了相关系统效应的重要性,包括球状星团的化学异质性(多族人口)、未分辨的双星系统和棕矮星冷却速率的不确定性。与其他年龄测定方法一样,系统效应主导了误差预算(在某些情况下,超过一个数量级),但通过更复杂的分析可以减少。最后,我提供了一个查找表,用于确定估计给定星团年龄所需观测次数、曝光时间和时间基线。

英文摘要:

As the oldest building blocks of our Galaxy, globular clusters retain the archaeological footprint of the early stellar environments. Accurate absolute ages of globular clusters are required to interpret this ancient record. Existing dating techniques often produce precise but discordant ages, suggestive of systematic errors in excess of 1 Gyr. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unlocked a new dating method that leverages the cooling behavior of previously unobservable brown dwarf members. With a largely independent set of systematic errors, this new method provides a new consistency test for more established methodologies. I present a likelihood-based histogram-free method to derive globular cluster ages from multi-band JWST photometry of cluster members near and below the hydrogen-burning limit. By applying the method to a large set of simulated observations, I establish that formal age errors (i.e. errors based on measurement uncertainties alone) under 0.2 Gyr are attainable for nearby globular clusters. I also evaluate the significance of associated systematic effects, including the chemical heterogeneity of globular clusters (multiple populations), unresolved binary systems and uncertainties in brown dwarf cooling rates. As with other methods of age determination, systematic effects dominate the error budget (in selected cases, by over an order of magnitude), but may be reduced with more sophisticated analysis. Finally, I provide a lookup table for determining the number of observations, exposure times and temporal baselines required to estimate the age of a given cluster to a prescribed precision.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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