The Chromospheric Activity and Age Relation among Main Sequence Stars in Wide Binaries

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

We present a study of the chromospheric activity levels in 36 wide binary systems. Thirty one of the binaries contain a white dwarf component. In such binaries the total age can be estimated by adding the cooling age of the white dwarf to an estimate of the progenitor's main sequence lifetime. To better understand how activity correlates to stellar age, 14 cluster member stars were also observed. Our observations confirm the expectation derived from studies of single main sequence stars that activity decays with age. However, for the first time we demonstrate that this relation extends from 50 Myr to at least 8 Gyr for stars with 1.0 < V-I < 2.4 color index. We also find that little change in activity occurs for stars with V-I < 1.0 and ages between 1 Gyr and 5 Gyr. The slope of constant age lines in the activity vs. V-I plane for young stars is relatively steep, while for old stars it appears to be flatter. In addition, our sample includes five wide binaries consisting of two main sequence stars. These pairs provide a useful reality check on our activity vs. age relation. Support for this project from NSF grant AST-0807919 to Florida Institute of Technology is gratefully acknowledged.

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