Model Choice Matters for Age Inference on the Red Giant Branch

Abstract

Galactic archaeology relies on accurate stellar parameters to reconstruct the Galaxy's history, including information on stellar ages. While the precision of data has improved significantly in recent years, stellar models used for age inference have not improved at a similar rate. In fact, different models yield notably different age predictions for the same observational data. In this paper, we assess the difference in age predictions of various widely used model grids for stars along the red giant branch. Using open-source software, we conduct a comparison of four different evolution grids, and we find that age estimations become less reliable if stellar mass is not known, with differences occasionally exceeding 80%. Additionally, we note significant disagreements in the models’ age estimations at nonsolar metallicity. Finally, we present a method for including theoretical uncertainties from stellar evolutionary tracks in age inferences of red giants, aimed at improving the accuracy of age estimation techniques used in the galactic archaeology community.

Keywords

• Stellar evolutionary models
• Red giant branch
• Stellar ages
• Stellar properties