On the age of Galactic bulge microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars

TL;DR

This study confirms that a significant fraction of microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars in the Galactic bulge are younger than previously thought, challenging the idea of an exclusively old stellar population.

Contribution

The paper independently verifies previous age estimates using a grid-based method and assesses systematic biases affecting stellar age determinations.

Findings

16 stars younger than 5 Gyr identified

28 stars younger than 9 Gyr identified

Robust evidence of young stars in the Galactic bulge

Abstract

Recent results by Bensby and collaborators on the ages of microlensed stars in the Galactic bulge have challenged the picture of an exclusively old stellar population. However, these age estimates have not been independently confirmed. In this paper we verify these results by means of a grid-based method and quantify the systematic biases that might be induced by some assumptions adopted to compute stellar models. We explore the impact of increasing the initial helium abundance, neglecting the element microscopic diffusion, and changing the mixing-length calibration in theoretical stellar track computations. We adopt the SCEPtER pipeline with a novel stellar model grid for metallicities [Fe/H] from -2.00 to 0.55 dex, and masses in the range [0.60; 1.60] Msun from the ZAMS to the helium flash at the red giant branch tip. We show for the considered evolutionary phases that our technique provides unbiased age estimates. Our age results are in good agreement with Bensby and collaborators findings and show 16 stars younger than 5 Gyr and 28 younger than 9 Gyr over a sample of 58. The effect of a helium enhancement as large as Delta Y/Delta Z = 5 is quite modest, resulting in a mean age increase of metal rich stars of 0.6 Gyr. Even simultaneously adopting a high helium content and the upper values of age estimates, there is evidence of 4 stars younger than 5 Gyr and 15 younger than 9 Gyr. For stars younger than 5 Gyr, the use of stellar models computed by neglecting microscopic diffusion or by assuming a super-solar mixing-length value leads to a mean increase in the age estimates of about 0.4 Gyr and 0.5 Gyr respectively. Even considering the upper values for the age estimates, there are four stars estimated younger than 5 Gyr is in both cases. Thus, the assessment of a sizeable fraction of young stars among the microlensed sample in the Galactic bulge appears robust.