Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1995-09-22
Science 271 (1996) 957-961
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Latex, 18 pages, plus 2 postscript figures (one color) available as separate uuencoded file
Scientific paper
10.1126/science.271.5251.957
We report the results of a detailed numerical study designed to estimate both the absolute age and the uncertainty in age (with confidence limits) of the oldest globular clusters. Such an estimate is essential if a comparison with the Hubble age of the universe is to be made to determine the consistency, or lack thereof, of various cosmological models. Utilizing estimates of the uncertainty range (and distribution) in the input parameters of stellar evolution codes we produced 1000 Monte Carlo realizations of stellar isochrones, with which we could fit the ages of the 18 oldest globular clusters. Incorporating the observational uncertainties in the measured color-magnitude diagrams for these systems and the predicted isochrones, we derived a probability distribution for the mean age of these systems. The one-sided 95$\%$ C.L.~ lower bound for this distribution occurs at an age of 12.07 Gyr. This puts interesting constraints on cosmology which we discuss. Further details, including a description of the distributions, covariance matrices, dependence upon individual input parameters, etc.\ will appear in a future article.
Chaboyer Brian
Demarque Pierre
Kernan Peter J.
Krauss Lawrence M.
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