Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?

Undergraduate

Project Type

group

Campus

Daytona Beach

Authors' Class Standing

Isabelle Kloc, Senior Jimmy Sargent, Senior Natalie Moticska, Senior

Lead Presenter's Name

Isabelle Kloc

Faculty Mentor Name

Dr. von Hippel

Abstract

White dwarfs (WDs) have been used as chronometers to age date the solar neighborhood, open clusters, globular clusters, and even the Galactic halo field population. The availability of highly accurate and precise Gaia trigonometric parallaxes along with nearly all-sky, homogenous photometric surveys (SDSS, Pan-STARRS) now allows us to improve the precision in WD ages. We report on the consistency of ages among seven WD+WD binaries, run through BASE-9 individually and in pairs. BASE-9 uses Bayesian analysis to estimate the values for stellar parameters, such as age, distance, and metallicity. We found that using Gaia's parallaxes with binary systems constrains the errors in these estimations, by lowering uncertainties and constraining the ages and distances of the systems.

Did this research project receive funding support (Spark, SURF, Research Abroad, Student Internal Grants, Collaborative, Climbing, or Ignite Grants) from the Office of Undergraduate Research?

Yes, Spark Grant

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Analyzing white dwarf + white dwarf binaries with Gaia trigonometric parallaxes

White dwarfs (WDs) have been used as chronometers to age date the solar neighborhood, open clusters, globular clusters, and even the Galactic halo field population. The availability of highly accurate and precise Gaia trigonometric parallaxes along with nearly all-sky, homogenous photometric surveys (SDSS, Pan-STARRS) now allows us to improve the precision in WD ages. We report on the consistency of ages among seven WD+WD binaries, run through BASE-9 individually and in pairs. BASE-9 uses Bayesian analysis to estimate the values for stellar parameters, such as age, distance, and metallicity. We found that using Gaia's parallaxes with binary systems constrains the errors in these estimations, by lowering uncertainties and constraining the ages and distances of the systems.

 

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