arXiv subjects

David Gruner

Publications and source records attributed to David Gruner.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Large-scale time-series spectroscopy for stellar ages

To date, Galactic Astronomy has largely concerned itself with astrophysical processes, and with the locations, space motions and compositions of objects. Consider, for example, the elucidation of the components of the Galaxy over the past decades, its mapping as enabled by Gaia and its predecessors, the photometric and spectroscopic characterization of innumerable astrophysical objects in various wavelength ranges, both from the ground and from space, and the expanding discovery and characterization of exoplanets; all focused on the current, static Galaxy. This White Paper proposes a dedicated program to derive stellar ages from time-series spectroscopy to hasten the transformation of this static conception into a dynamical one with age-labeled objects and events.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2023

Wide binaries demonstrate the consistency of rotational evolution between open cluster and field stars

Gyrochronology enables the derivation of ages of late-type main sequence stars based on their rotation periods and a mass proxy, such as color. It has been explored in open clusters, but a connection to field stars has yet to be successfully established. We explore the rotation rates of wide binaries, representing enlightening intermediaries between clusters and field stars, and their overlap with those of open cluster stars. We investigated a recently created catalog of wide binaries, matched the cataloged binaries to observations by the Kepler mission (and its K2 extension), validated or re-derived their rotation periods, identified 283 systems where both stars are on the main sequence and have vetted rotation periods, and compared the systems with open cluster data. We find that the vast majority of these wide binaries (236) line up directly along the curvilinear ribs defined by open clusters in color-period diagrams or along the equivalent interstitial gaps between successive open clusters. The parallelism in shape is remarkable. Twelve additional systems are clearly rotationally older. The deviant systems, a minority, are mostly demonstrably hierarchical. Furthermore, the position of the evolved component in the color-magnitude diagram for the additional wide binary systems that contain one is consistent with the main sequence component's rotational age. We conclude that wide binaries, despite their diversity, follow the same spindown relationship as observed in open clusters, and we find that rotation-based age estimates yield the same ages for both components in a wide binary. This suggests that cluster and field stars spin down in the same way and that gyrochronology can be applied to field stars to determine their ages, provided that they are sufficiently distant from any companions to be considered effectively single.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2020

Rotation periods for cool stars in the open cluster Ruprecht 147 (NGC 6774): Implications for gyrochronology

Gyrochronology allows the derivation of ages for cool main sequence stars based on their observed rotation periods and masses, or a suitable proxy thereof. It is increasingly well-explored for FGK stars, but requires further measurements for older ages and K-M-type stars. We study the nearby, 3 Gyr-old open cluster Ruprecht 147 to compare it with the previously-studied, but far more distant, NGC 6819 cluster, and especially to measure cooler stars than was previously possible there. We constructed an inclusive list of 102 cluster members from prior work, including Gaia DR2, and for which light curves were also obtained during Campaign 7 of the Kepler/K2 space mission. [...] Periodic signals are found for 32 stars, 21 of which are considered to be both highly reliable and to represent single, or effectively single, Ru147 stars. These stars cover the spectral types from late-F to mid-M stars, and they have periods ranging from 6d-32d, allowing for a comparison of Ruprecht 147 to both of the other open clusters and to models of rotational spindown. The derived rotation periods connect reasonably to, overlap with, and extend to lower masses the known rotation period distribution of the 2.5 Gyr-old cluster NGC 6819. The data confirm that cool stars lie on a single surface in rotation period-mass-age space, and they simultaneously challenge its commonly assumed shape. The shape at the low mass region of the color-period diagram at the age of Ru147 favors a recently-proposed model, which requires a third mass-dependent timescale in addition to the two timescales required by a former model, suggesting that a third physical process is required to model rotating stars effectively.

astro-ph.SR↗