Cumulative theoretical uncertainties in lithium depletion boundary age

Abstract

We performed a detailed analysis of the main theoretical uncertainties affecting the age at the lithium depletion boundary (LDB). To do that we computed almost 12000 pre-main sequence models with mass in the range [0.06, 0.4] M_sun by varying input physics (nuclear reaction cross-sections, plasma electron screening, outer boundary conditions, equation of state, and radiative opacity), initial chemical elements abundances (total metallicity, helium and deuterium abundances, and heavy elements mixture), and convection efficiency (mixing length parameter, alpha_ML). As a first step, we studied the effect of varying these quantities individually within their extreme values. Then, we analysed the impact of simultaneously perturbing the main input/parameters without an a priori assumption of independence. Such an approach allowed us to build for the first time the cumulative error stripe, which defines the edges of the maximum uncertainty region in the theoretical LDB age. We found that the cumulative error stripe is asymmetric and dependent on the adopted mixing length value. For alpha_ML = 1.00, the positive relative age error ranges from 5 to 15 per cent, while for solar-calibrated mixing length, the uncertainty reduces to 5-10 per cent. A large fraction of such an error (about 40 per cent) is due to the uncertainty in the adopted initial chemical elements abundances.

arXiv commentLDB tables for several [Fe/H] values are available at the url: http://astro.df.unipi.it/stellar-models/ldb

References in corpus (28)

• The chemical composition of the Sun
• Low Temperature Opacities
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis for the New Cosmology: Determining Uncertainties and Examining Concordance
• The Pisa pre-main sequence tracks and isochrones. A database covering a wide range of Z, Y, mass, and age values
• Compilation and R-matrix analysis of Big Bang nuclear reaction rates
• The photospheric solar oxygen project: I. Abundance analysis of atomic lines and influence of atmospheric models
• BANYAN. IV. Fundamental parameters of low-mass star candidates in nearby young stellar kinematic groups - Isochronal Age determination using Magnetic evolutionary models
• Lithium Depletion in Fully Convective Pre-Main Sequence Stars
• Lithium Depletion in Pre-Mainsequence Solar-Like Stars
• The Pisa Stellar Evolution Data Base for low-mass stars
• Dynamical Mass Constraints on Low-Mass Pre-Main-Sequence Stellar Evolutionary Tracks: An Eclipsing Binary in Orion with a 1.0 Msun Primary and an 0.7 Msun Secondary
• How do Uncertainties in the Surface Chemical Abundances of the Sun Affect the Predicted Solar Neutrino Fluxes?
• How Accurately Can We Calculate the Depth of the Solar Convective Zone?
• Theoretical Examination of the Lithium Depletion Boundary
• ΔY/ ΔZ from the analysis of local K dwarfs
• Electron thermal conductivity owing to collisions between degenerate electrons
• Cumulative physical uncertainty in modern stellar models I. The case of low-mass stars
• The proton-proton weak capture in chiral effective field theory
• Lithium-7 surface abundance in pre-MS stars. Testing theory against clusters and binary systems
• Testing pre-main sequence models: the power of a Bayesian approach
• Convection in the atmospheres and envelopes of Pre-Main Sequence stars
• Light Element Depletion in Contracting Brown Dwarfs and Pre--Main-Sequence Stars
• The effect of starspots on the ages of low-mass stars determined from the lithium depletion boundary
• Efficiency of convection and pre-mainsequence lithium depletion
• Non-gray rotating stellar models and the evolutionary history of the Orion Nebular Cluster
• Cumulative physical uncertainty in modern stellar models. II. The dependence on the chemical composition
• The effect of heavy element opacity on pre-main sequence Li depletion
• Astrophysical implications of the proton-proton cross section updates

Cited by in corpus (19)

• A self-consistent, absolute isochronal age scale for young moving groups in the solar neighbourhood
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: Empirical estimates of stellar ages from lithium equivalent widths (EAGLES)
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: open clusters in Gaia-DR1 - a way forward to stellar age calibration
• Spectroscopic confirmation of M-dwarf candidate members of the Beta Pictoris and AB Doradus Moving Groups
• Lithium depletion boundary, stellar associations, and Gaia
• A stellar census of the nearby, young 32 Orionis group
• Gaia-ESO Survey: Role of magnetic activity and starspots on pre-main sequence lithium evolution
• Improved Main Sequence Turnoff Ages of Young Open Clusters: Multicolor UBV Techniques & the Challenges of Rotation
• Theoretical uncertainties on the radius of low- and very-low mass stars
• Bayesian calibration of the mixing length parameter ${\alpha }_{ML}$ and of the helium-to-metal enrichment ratio $\Delta Y/\Delta Z$ with open clusters: the Hyades test-bed
• A new study of ${}^{10}$B(p,$\alpha$)${}^7$Be reaction at low energies
• The Gaia-ESO survey: A lithium depletion boundary age for NGC 2232
• The Goldreich-Schubert-Fricke instability in stellar radiative zones
• Accreting pre-main sequence models and abundance anomalies in globular clusters
• Quantum effects on plasma screening for thermonuclear reactions in laser-generated plasmas
• Clusters: age scales for stellar physics
• Theoretical predictions of surface light element abundances in protostellar and pre-Main Sequence phase
• Effect of planet ingestion on low-mass stars evolution: the case of 2MASS J08095427--4721419 star in the Gamma Velorum cluster
• Using a neural network approach and starspots dependent models to predict effective temperatures and ages of young stars