Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
group
What campus are you from?
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Alisa Tiselska, senior
Lead Presenter's Name
Alisa Tiselska
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Ted von Hippel
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to develop a technique to determine the age of formation of the Galactic thin and thick disks. To achieve this goal, we calculated the U, V, and W velocity components for thousands of Gaia white dwarfs and ran the BASE-9 Astro statistics software modules singlePopMcmc and sampleWDMass. Classifying the white dwarf stars into three Galactic populations was another important part of the study. We classified 101418 thin disk stars, 3158 thick disk stars, and six halo stars. The findings suggest that one out of the six halo stars —star 4108—is a white dwarf star that we can model. Its age is 5.62 Gyr, which is inconsistent with the age of the Galactic halo and thus this star is probably a velocity interloper. To further investigate stellar populations, we will apply the same method for the thick disk population candidates. The age of the thick disk would help broaden our knowledge of this star population and place it more fully into the history of the formation of the Milky Way.
Did this research project receive funding support from the Office of Undergraduate Research.
Yes, SURF
White Dwarf Stars: Ages of Distant Objects
The goal of this paper is to develop a technique to determine the age of formation of the Galactic thin and thick disks. To achieve this goal, we calculated the U, V, and W velocity components for thousands of Gaia white dwarfs and ran the BASE-9 Astro statistics software modules singlePopMcmc and sampleWDMass. Classifying the white dwarf stars into three Galactic populations was another important part of the study. We classified 101418 thin disk stars, 3158 thick disk stars, and six halo stars. The findings suggest that one out of the six halo stars —star 4108—is a white dwarf star that we can model. Its age is 5.62 Gyr, which is inconsistent with the age of the Galactic halo and thus this star is probably a velocity interloper. To further investigate stellar populations, we will apply the same method for the thick disk population candidates. The age of the thick disk would help broaden our knowledge of this star population and place it more fully into the history of the formation of the Milky Way.