Collaborative Research: White Dwarfs and the Star Formation History of the Galaxy

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AST 0307321PI: James LiebertINSTITUTION: University of ArizonaDr James Liebert of the University of Arizona will collaborate with Ted von Hippel of the University of Texas (AST 0307315) and a team of colleagues to address fundamental questions of the ages of the Galactic disk, thick disk, and halo. They plan to place the ages of the Galactic components on the same relative age scale to within 1 Gyr, and derive an absolute age of the disk to within 1 to 2 Gyr. Their project will also lead to improvements in understanding of the evolution and luminosity function of white dwarfs. New observations at the University of Arizona's and the University of Texas' observatories, as well as use of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, will yield more than 2400 new white dwarfs, a sample unbiased by kinematical selection. Precise astrometry from the USNO telescopes will allow the determination of the parent populations for a subset of the most important (oldest) white dwarfs. The result of these observations will be a set of parameters for white dwarfs that is precise enough to guide the theoretical work and to measure ages for a subset of the most important white dwarfs. To ensure broad impact of this research, the team will produce instructional materials at the secondary school level on stellar evolution and the age of the Galaxy. The materials will be used at teacher professional development workshops to be held at McDonald Observatory. The materials will also be disseminated by the partners and on the web. The workshops are a collaboration between the PI and the education outreach staff at McDonald Observatory, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, and the National Solar Observatory.***