Improved Age Estimation for Solar‐Type Dwarfs Using Activity‐Rotation Diagnostics

2008/07/10 by Eric E. Mamajek, Lynne A. Hillenbrand · 83 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/591785

78 pages, 15 figures, ApJ, in press. Files can also be downloaded from http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~emamajek/cahk/

arxiv created 2008/07/10 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

While the strong anticorrelation between chromospheric activity and age has led to the common use of the Ca II H and K emission index ( R ' HK = L HK / L bol ) as an empirical age estimator for solar-type dwarfs, existing activity-age relations produce implausible ages at both high and low activity levels. We have compiled R ' HK data from the literature for young stellar clusters, richly populating for the first time the young end of the activity-age relation. Combining the cluster activity data with modern cluster age estimates and analyzing the color dependence of the chromospheric activity age index, we derive an improved activity-age calibration for F7-K2 dwarfs (0.5 mag < B − V < 0.9 mag ). We also present a more fundamentally motivated activity-age calibration that relies on conversion of R ' HK values through the Rossby number to rotation periods and then makes use of improved gyrochronology relations. We demonstrate that our new activity-age calibration has typical age precision of ~0.2 dex for normal solar-type dwarfs aged between the Hyades and the Sun (~0.6-4.5 Gyr). Inferring ages through activity-rotation-age relations accounts for some color-dependent effects and systematically improves the age estimates (albeit only slightly). We demonstrate that coronal activity as measured through the fractional X-ray luminosity ( R X = L X / L bol ) has nearly the same age- and rotation-inferring capability as chromospheric activity measured through R ' HK . As a first application of our calibrations, we provide new activity-derived age estimates for a volume-limited sample of the 108 solar-type field dwarfs within 16 pc.

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