X-ray Emission and Stellar Ages of Sun-Like Stars

Abstract

We present an analysis of XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of 85 nearby main-sequence FGK stars with age estimates ranging from 0.2-12 Gyr. We measure quiescent 0.3-10 keV luminosities, variability metrics, and multi-temperature thermal plasma spectral parameters. Quiescent spectra are typically described by three characteristic plasma components ($kT\approx 0.1$, 0.4, 0.8 keV); the fraction of flux from $T\ge 7$ MK rises with X-ray surface flux, reaching $\sim$50% for $F_X\gtrsim 10^6$ erg cm${}^{-2}$ s${}^{-1}$. We derive relations between emission measure-weighted coronal temperature and both $L_X$ and $F_X$, enabling temperature-informed count-rate conversions for faint sources. We quantify how bandpass conversions (ROSAT 0.1-2.4 keV vs. XMM-Newton 0.3-10 keV) depend on temperature, and show that inferred ROSAT-band $L_X$ broadly follows the canonical $t^{-1.5}$ decay, while the harder band exhibits increased scatter at $>$4 Gyr. Several stars show excess activity suggestive of age errors, inclination effects, or unresolved companions. Some of these "outlier" stars are potential direct imaging targets for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and detailed characterization of these stars is needed to inform their likely influence on the atmospheric evolution of orbiting planets.

Accepted to ApJ; 16 pages, 9 figures