Improved Main Sequence Turnoff Ages of Young Open Clusters: Multicolor UBV Techniques & the Challenges of Rotation

TL;DR

This study refines age estimates of young open clusters by using multicolor UBV techniques to identify and exclude peculiar stars, demonstrating the significant impact of stellar rotation on age determination, especially in very young clusters.

Contribution

The paper introduces a method using UBV color-color relations to identify peculiar stars and improve turnoff age estimates, highlighting the importance of rotation in young cluster age determination.

Findings

UBV color-color analysis effectively identifies peculiar stars.

Rotating isochrones yield more accurate ages for young clusters.

Turnoff ages from rotating models agree with lithium depletion boundary ages.

Abstract

Main sequence turnoff ages in young open clusters are complicated by turnoffs that are sparse, have high binarity fractions, can be affected by differential reddening, and typically include a number of peculiar stars. Furthermore, stellar rotation can have a significant effect on a star's photometry and evolutionary timescale. In this paper we analyze in 12 nearby open clusters, ranging from ages of 50 Myr to 350 Myr, how broadband UBV color-color relations can be used to identify turnoff stars that are Be stars, blue stragglers, certain types of binaries, or those affected by differential reddening. This UBV color-color analysis also directly measures a cluster's E(B-V) and estimates its [Fe/H]. The turnoff stars unaffected by these peculiarities create a narrower and more clearly defined cluster turnoff. Using four common isochronal models, two of which consider rotation, we fit cluster parameters using these selected turnoff stars and the main sequence. Comparisons of the photometrically fit cluster distances to those based on Gaia DR2 parallaxes find that they are consistent for all clusters. For older (>100 Myr) clusters, like the Pleiades and the Hyades, comparisons to ages based on the lithium depletion boundary method finds that these cleaned turnoff ages agree to within ~10% for all four isochronal models. For younger clusters, however, only the Geneva models that consider rotation fit turnoff ages consistent with lithium-based ages, while the ages based on non-rotating isochrones quickly diverge to become 30% to 80% younger. This illustrates the importance of rotation for deriving ages in the youngest (<100 Myr) clusters.