PARSEC: stellar tracks and isochrones with the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code

TL;DR

This paper introduces an updated stellar evolution code, PARSEC, which includes the pre-main sequence phase and allows for the generation of accurate, composition-specific opacity tables, enhancing modeling of star clusters and galaxies.

Contribution

The paper presents a revised stellar evolution code with new physics, pre-main sequence inclusion, and customizable opacity tables for improved stellar population modeling.

Findings

Extended stellar evolutionary models for various compositions

Isochrones generated in multiple photometric systems

Enhanced tools for star cluster and galaxy modeling

Abstract

We present the updated version of the code used to compute stellar evolutionary tracks in Padova. It is the result of a thorough revision of the major input physics, together with the inclusion of the pre-main sequence phase, not present in our previous releases of stellar models. Another innovative aspect is the possibility of promptly generating accurate opacity tables fully consistent with any selected initial chemical composition, by coupling the OPAL opacity data at high temperatures to the molecular opacities computed with our AESOPUS code (Marigo & Aringer 2009). In this work we present extended sets of stellar evolutionary models for various initial chemical compositions, while other sets with different metallicities and/or different distributions of heavy elements are being computed. For the present release of models we adopt the solar distribution of heavy elements from the recent revision by Caffau et al. (2011), corresponding to a Sun's metallicity Z=0.0152. From all computed sets of stellar tracks, we also derive isochrones in several photometric systems. The aim is to provide the community with the basic tools to model star clusters and galaxies by means of population synthesis techniques.