Using the Gaia excess uncertainty as a proxy for stellar variability and age

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Gaia photometric excess uncertainty can serve as a reliable proxy for stellar age, especially for young stars, enabling age estimation, association identification, and validation of co-moving groups.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate stellar ages using Gaia excess uncertainty, calibrated against known associations, with accuracy comparable to traditional methods for young stars.

Findings

Gaia excess uncertainty scales as t^{-0.4}, following a Skumanich-like relation.

The method predicts group ages within 10-20% for associations younger than 2.5 Gyr.

Most Theia groups within 350 pc are confirmed as real co-eval populations.

Abstract

Stars are known to be more active when they are young, resulting in a strong correlation between age and photometric variability. The amplitude variation between stars of a given age is large, but the age-variability relation becomes strong over large groups of stars. We explore this relation using the excess photometric uncertainty in Gaia photometry ($Var_{G}$, $Var_{BP}$, and $Var_{RP}$) as a proxy for variability. The metrics follow a Skumanich-like relation, scaling as $\simeq t^{-0.4}$. By calibrating against a set of associations with known ages, we show how $Var$ of population members can predict group ages within 10-20% for associations younger than $\simeq$2.5 Gyr. In practice, age uncertainties are larger, primarily due to finite group size. The index is most useful at the youngest ages ($<$100 Myr), where the uncertainties are comparable to or better than those derived from a color-magnitude diagram. The index is also widely available, easy to calculate, and can be used at intermediate ages where there are few or no pre- or post-main-sequence stars. We further show how $Var$ can be used to find new associations and test if a group of co-moving stars is a real co-eval population. We apply our methods on the Theia groups within 350 pc and find $\gtrsim$90% are inconsistent with drawing stars from the field and $\simeq$80% have variability ages consistent with those derived from the CMD. Our finding suggest the great majority of these groups contain real populations.