White dwarf stars play an important role in many fields of modern astrophysics. In the present work we discuss the limits of the available theoretical studies of cooling sequences. We analyze the variation of the age of globular clusters derived from the observed white dwarf sequence caused by different assumptions about the conductive opacity as well as that induced by changing the carbon abundance in the core. The former causes a global uncertainty of the order of 10% and the latter of about 5%. We discuss different choices of the initial-to-final mass relation, which induces an uncertainty of 8% on the globular cluster age estimate.
Theoretical uncertainties on white dwarf luminosity functions
PRADA MORONI, PIER GIORGIO;
2008-01-01
Abstract
White dwarf stars play an important role in many fields of modern astrophysics. In the present work we discuss the limits of the available theoretical studies of cooling sequences. We analyze the variation of the age of globular clusters derived from the observed white dwarf sequence caused by different assumptions about the conductive opacity as well as that induced by changing the carbon abundance in the core. The former causes a global uncertainty of the order of 10% and the latter of about 5%. We discuss different choices of the initial-to-final mass relation, which induces an uncertainty of 8% on the globular cluster age estimate.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
