Gyrochronology and its usage for main sequence cool star ages

Abstract

The construction of all age indicators consists of certain basic steps which lead to the identification of the properties desirable for stellar age indicators. Prior age indicators for main sequence field stars possess only some of these properties. The measured rotation periods of cool stars are particularly useful in this respect because they have well-defined dependencies that allow stellar ages to be determined with ~20% errors. This method, called gyrochronology, is explained informally in this talk, shown to have the desired properties, compared to prior methods, and used to derive ages for samples of main sequence field stars.