On the Calibration of the Temperatures and Colors of Stellar Models for Lower Mass Stars

Abstract

The temperatures and colors of stellar models are much less secure than predicted luminosities; consequently, it is important to ensure that the models which are used to interpret data for stellar populations satisfy existing observational constraints on these properties. At the present time, the available Teff constraints do not appear to pose a problem for evolutionary calculations. However, the evidence seems compelling that adjustments of the color transformations from model atmospheres are needed to achieve consistency with observations of cool stars. Stellar models that are normalized to the Sun and transformed to the observed plane using recent semi-empirical color-Teff relations are able to provide superb fits to the M67 and Hyades color-magnitude diagrams. As highlighted in the following examination of Population II subdwarfs and several well-observed globular clusters (M3, M5, M68, M92, and 47 Tuc), it is much harder to constrain the Teff and color scales at low metallicities than at [Fe/H] near 0.0. It is not clear that significant improvements to current semi-empirical color-Teff relations for metal-deficient stars will be possible until much tigher observational constraints become available. Brief comparisons of the evolutionary tracks computed by different workers are also included in this investigation.