A Silent Revolution in Fundamental Astrophysics

TL;DR

This paper discusses a paradigm shift in fundamental astrophysics, emphasizing the importance of accurate stellar luminosities enabled by the IAU 2015 resolution, which impacts various astrophysical research areas.

Contribution

It introduces a new understanding of bolometric corrections and presents methods for more accurate stellar luminosity measurements post-2015.

Findings

IAU 2015 resolution supersedes previous paradigms

Enhanced accuracy in stellar luminosity measurements

Implications for cosmology and dark matter research

Abstract

Arbitrariness in the zero point of bolometric corrections is a nearly century-old paradigm leading to two more paradigms. "Bolometric corrections must always be negative," and "bolometric magnitude of a star ought to be brighter than its $V$ magnitude". Both were considered valid before IAU 2015 General Assembly Resolution B2, a revolutionary document that supersedes all three aforementioned paradigms. The purpose of this article is to initiate a new insight and a new understanding of the fundamental astrophysics and present new capabilities to obtain standard and more accurate stellar luminosities and gain more from accurate observations in the era after Gaia. The accuracy gained will aid in advancing stellar structure and evolution theories, and also Galactic and extragalactic research, observational cosmology and dark matter and dark energy searches.