2025/02/13 by J. C. Guzman, Guzman, Joseph J., Jeremiah W. Murphy +7
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Code (set theory) #Computer science #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Physics #Programming language #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.09703
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)
openalex publication_date 2025/02/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
We present a novel statistical algorithm, Stellar Ages, which currently infers the age, metallicity, and extinction posterior distributions of stellar populations from their magnitudes. While this paper focuses on these parameters, the framework is readily adaptable to include additional properties, such as rotation, in future work. Historical age-dating techniques either model individual stars or populations of stars, often sacrificing population context or precision for individual estimates. Stellar Ages does both, combining the strengths of these approaches to provide precise individual ages for stars while leveraging population-level constraints. We verify the algorithm's capabilities by determining the age of synthetic stellar populations and actual stellar populations surrounding a nearby supernova, SN 2004dj. In addition to inferring an age, we infer a progenitor mass consistent with direct observations of the precursor star. The median age inferred from the brightest nearby stars is log10(Age/yr) = 7.19+0.10-0.13, and its corresponding progenitor mass is 13.95+3.33-1.96 M\odot.