MASSCLEANage -- Stellar Cluster Ages from Integrated Colors --
Bogdan Popescu, M. M. Hanson

TL;DR
MASSCLEANage is a new statistical tool that accurately estimates the ages and masses of stellar clusters from integrated colors, addressing degeneracies and improving upon previous methods.
Contribution
The paper introduces MASSCLEANage, a novel statistical inference package that simultaneously determines cluster age and mass from photometry, utilizing an extensive Monte Carlo model database.
Findings
MASSCLEANage improves age estimates compared to traditional photometric methods.
The tool effectively reduces degeneracies by solving for mass and age simultaneously.
Results show good agreement with spectroscopic age determinations.
Abstract
We present the recently updated and expanded MASSCLEANcolors, a database of 70 million Monte Carlo models selected to match the properties (metallicity, ages and masses) of stellar clusters found in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This database shows the rather extreme and non-Guassian distribution of integrated colors and magnitudes expected with different cluster age and mass and the enormous age degeneracy of integrated colors when mass is unknown. This degeneracy could lead to catastrophic failures in estimating age with standard SSP models, particularly if most of the clusters are of intermediate or low mass, like in the LMC. Utilizing the MASSCLEANcolors database, we have developed MASSCLEANage, a statistical inference package which assigns the most likely age and mass (solved simultaneously) to a cluster based only on its integrated broad-band photometric properties. Finally,…
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