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Article
The Ages of the Thin Disk, Thick Disk, and the Halo from Nearby White Dwarfs
The Astrophysical Journal
  • Mukremin Kilic, University of Oklahoma
  • Ted von Hippel, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
  • Jeffrey A. Munn, US Naval Observatory
  • Hugh C. Harris, US Naval Observatory
  • James W. Liebert, University of Arizona
  • et al.
Submitting Campus
Daytona Beach
Department
Physical Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
2-24-2017
Abstract/Description

We present a detailed analysis of the white dwarf luminosity functions derived from the local 40 pc sample and the deep proper motion catalog of Munn et al. (2014, 2017). Many of the previous studies ignored the contribution of thick disk white dwarfs to the Galactic disk luminosity function, which results in an erronous age measurement. We demonstrate that the ratio of thick/thin disk white dwarfs is roughly 20% in the local sample. Simultaneously fitting for both disk components, we derive ages of 6.8-7.0 Gyr for the thin disk and 8.7 ± 0.1 Gyr for the thick disk from the local 40 pc sample. Similarly, we derive ages of 7.4-8.2 Gyr for the thin disk and 9.5-9.9 Gyr for the thick disk from the deep proper motion catalog, which shows no evidence of a deviation from a constant star formation rate in the past 2.5 Gyr. We constrain the time difference between the onset of star formation in the thin disk and the thick disk to be 1.6 +0.3−0.4 Gyr. The faint end of the luminosity function for the halo white dwarfs is less constrained, resulting in an age estimate of 12.5 +1.4−3.4 Gyr for the Galactic inner halo. This is the first time ages for all three major components of the Galaxy are obtained from a sample of field white dwarfs that is large enough to contain significant numbers of disk and halo objects. The resultant ages agree reasonably well with the age estimates for the oldest open and globular clusters.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa62a5
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Grant or Award Name
NSF and NASA grants AST-0607480, AST-0602288, AST-1312678, and NNX14AF65G
Citation Information
Mukremin Kilic, Ted von Hippel, Jeffrey A. Munn, Hugh C. Harris, et al.. "The Ages of the Thin Disk, Thick Disk, and the Halo from Nearby White Dwarfs" The Astrophysical Journal Vol. 837 Iss. 2 (2017)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ted-vonhippel/84/