Wednesday, April 2, 2025 2:30pm to 3:20pm
About this Event
135 Willey Street, Morgantown, WV 26506
https://physics.wvu.edu/news-and-events/department-news/2024/12/06/spring-2025-physics-and-astronomy-colloquium-series-lineupJoin the Department of Physics and Astronomy on Wednesday, April 2 at 2:30pm in White Hall G09 for a colloquium presented by Jeff Bary (Colgate University). The title of the talk is, "The Effects of Large Cool Spots on the Age and Mass Determinations of Young Sun-like Stars." A reception will precede the colloquium at 2:00pm in White Hall 105/111.
Abstract
Accurate estimates of the ages and masses of stars in young star forming regions are essential to developing a robust understanding of the formation and early evolution of stars and planetary systems. While the masses for some young stars in binary systems may be measured directly, ages must be inferred from fitting effective temperatures and stellar luminosities to evolutionary models. Thus these age estimates depend on the physics of such models, but also rely on our ability to accurately constrain the temperatures and luminosities of pre-main sequence stars -- a population of objects known for their highly variable and capricious behavior. For twenty years, the star formation community has accepted that a mismatch exists between spectral types derived from optical versus infrared spectra. The mismatches correspond to temperature differences on the order of several hundred Kelvin,significantly impacting the inferred ages and masses. Over the last ten years, modeling the infrared spectra of young low mass stars has revealed the presence of cool starspots covering sizable fractions (> 50%) of the stellar surfaces can explain the mismatches. Such studies indicate that we must both revise our measured effective temperatures and luminosities as well as develop new evolutionary models to account for the effects cool spots have on pre-main sequence evolution. With this talk, I will review our work developing spectral models of spotted stars and the impact they have on ages and masses inferred for young stars.
Biography
Jeff Bary is the Sweet Family Chair and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Colgate University. His research interests are primarily focused on the formation of stars and the evolution of their protoplanetary disks. Recently, his scholarly work has expanded to include a multidisciplinary exploration of dark skies and their role in the construction of identity and sense of place in Appalachia. He is a native of Welch, West Virginia.
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