학술논문

The APO-K2 Catalog. II. Accurate Stellar Ages for Red Giant Branch Stars across the Milky Way
Document Type
article
Source
The Astronomical Journal, Vol 167, Iss 5, p 208 (2024)
Subject
Stellar ages
Asteroseismology
Stellar abundances
Milky Way evolution
Milky Way formation
Galaxy stellar content
Astronomy
QB1-991
Language
English
ISSN
1538-3881
Abstract
We present stellar age determinations for 4661 red giant branch stars in the APO-K2 catalog, derived using mass estimates from K2 asteroseismology from the K2 Galactic Archaeology Program and elemental abundances from the Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment survey. Our sample includes 17 of the 19 fields observed by K2, making it one of the most comprehensive catalogs of accurate stellar ages across the Galaxy in terms of the wide range of populations spanned by its stars, enabling rigorous tests of Galactic chemical evolution models. Taking into account the selection functions of the K2 sample, the data appear to support the age−chemistry morphology of stellar populations predicted by both inside-out and late-burst scenarios. We also investigate trends in age versus stellar chemistry and Galactic position, which are consistent with previous findings. Comparisons against APOKASC-3 asteroseismic ages show agreement to within ∼3%. We also discuss offsets between our ages and spectroscopic ages. Finally, we note that ignoring the effects of α -enhancement on stellar opacity (either directly or with the Salaris metallicity correction) results in an ∼10% offset in age estimates for the most α -enhanced stars, which is an important consideration for continued tests of Galactic models with this and other asteroseismic age samples.