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Wide Binaries and the Age of the Galaxy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

T.D. Oswalt ,
J.A. Smith  and
M.A. Wood
T.D. Oswalt
Affiliation:
Florida Institute of Technology Department of Physics and Space Sciences Melbourne, Florida 32901 USA oswalt@tycho.pss.fit.edu
J.A. Smith
Affiliation:
Florida Institute of Technology Department of Physics and Space Sciences Melbourne, Florida 32901 USA oswalt@tycho.pss.fit.edu
M.A. Wood
Affiliation:
Florida Institute of Technology Department of Physics and Space Sciences Melbourne, Florida 32901 USA oswalt@tycho.pss.fit.edu

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Using B, V, R, I photometric parallaxes for components of wide binaries, new bolometric corrections by Bergeron et al. (1995) and cooling curves by Wood (1995), we have determined the white dwarf luminosity function (WDLF; Oswalt et al. 1996). A minimum age of 9.5+1.1−0.8 Gyr is implied for the Galactic disk; arbitrarily old models are consistent at the +2σ level. Smith (1997) confirms these results using a much larger sample and similar methodology. Using these same new models, Wood & Oswalt (1997) show that the WDLF of Liebert et al. (1988) yields an age of 7.5+0.5−0.5 Gyr, more than 20% younger than their original estimate.

Type
III. Galaxy Formation and Evolution
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 183: Cosmological Parameters and the Evolution of the Universe , 1999 , pp. 162
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1999 

References

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