Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jun 1990
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990jrasc..84..150w&link_type=abstract
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (ISSN 0035-872X), vol. 84, June 1990, p. 150-165.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
18
Galactic Evolution, Stellar Luminosity, White Dwarf Stars, Chronology, Star Formation, Star Formation Rate, Stellar Composition
Scientific paper
The history of the Galaxy is written in its oldest stars, the white dwarf (WD) stars. Significant limits can be placed on both the Galactic age and star formation history. A wide range of input WD model sequences is used to derive the current limits to the age estimates suggested by fitting to the observed falloff in the WD luminosity function. The results suggest that the star formation rate over the history of the Galaxy has been relatively constant, and that the disk age lies in the range 6-12 billion years, depending upon the assumed structure of WD stars, and in particular on the core composition and surface helium layer mass. Using plausible mixed C/O core input models, the estimates for the disk age range from 8-10.5 Gyr, i.e.,sustantially younger than most age estimates for the halo globular clusters. After speculating on the significance of the results, expected observational and theoretical refinements which will further enhance the reliability of the method are discussed.
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