Collaborative Research: New Standard Stellar Population Models

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Award: AST-0307407 PI: Brian ChaboyerInst: Dartmouth CollegeDr. Brian Chaboyer of Dartmouth College, with collaborators Guy Worthey of Washington State University (AST-0307487) and Edward Baron of University of Oklahoma (AST-0307323), will prepare a new set of stellar populations models that provide both isochrones and predicted colors and spectra for integrated populations. Their new models will incorporate the capability to model different abundance mixes, allowing, for the first time, variations in He/H, C, N, O, the alpha-elements, and an overall scaling factor for heavy element abundances. The models will include the most recent advances in model atmospheres, opacities, and stellar evolutionary codes. Using these models, they plan to demonstrate that absolute ages to 10% are achievable, and to derive ages for a sample of local galaxies. They will also derive a suite of elemental abundances for these galaxies, enabling strong new constraints on nucleosynthetic enrichment. These new models will impact almost every field of galactic and extragalactic astronomy, from studies of nearby stellar clusters and dwarf galaxies, to computing evolutionary corrections for high redshift galaxies. The PI's will make available, in both catalog form and through a web-based tool, the integrated and stellar photometry in all major filter systems, line strength indices, and both synthetic and empirically-derived spectra.