Stellar evolutionary models: uncertainties and systematics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current uncertainties in low-mass stellar evolutionary models, highlighting their sources and discussing the level of agreement with observational data.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the main physical uncertainties affecting low-mass stellar models and their impact on interpreting stellar populations.

Findings

Main sources of uncertainty identified in stellar models.

Comparison between theoretical models and observations of color-magnitude diagrams.

Discussion on the impact of physical process uncertainties on model accuracy.

Abstract

In this last decade, our knowledge of evolutionary and structural properties of stars of different mass and chemical composition is significantly improved. This result has been achieved as a consequence of our improved capability in understanding and describing the physical behavior of stellar matter in the different thermal regimes characteristic of the different stellar mass ranges and/or evolutionary stages. This notwithstanding, current generation of stellar models is still affected by significant and, usually, not negligible uncertainties. These uncertainties are related to our poor knowledge of some physical procceses occurring in the real stars such as, for instance, some thermodynamical processes, nuclear reaction rates, as well as the efficiency of mixing processes. These drawbacks of stellar models have to be properly taken into account when comparing theory with observations in order to derive relevant information about the properties of both resolved and unresolved stellar populations. In this paper we review current uncertainties affecting low-mass stellar models, i.e. those structures with mass in the range between 0.6Mo and 1.4Mo. We show what are the main sources of uncertainty along the main evolutionary stages, and discuss the present level of agreement between theory and observations concerning some selected features of the Color-Magnitude Diagram of low-mass stars.