Speaker: David Gruner (AIP)

Title: From the rotating Sun to the Milky Way star formation history: the past, present, and future of Gyrochronology

Abstract: Observations of stellar rotation have been done for centuries, beginning with the systematic monitoring of sun spots crossing the solar disk in the 17th century. Later, in other stars but still tracing spots, it was found that older stars rotate systematically slower than their younger counterparts. This gave rise to the new idea of Gyrochronology: obtaining ages for cool dwarfs - whose ages are often inaccessible otherwise - via their rotation rates. It holds the promise to create stellar chronologies across the Milky Way with all the benefits that those entail for fields as diverse as Galactic archeology and exoplanet research. I will illustrate how our understanding of stellar rotation has been shaped over the years and highlight the recent advances that have been made that show that Gyrochronology can be applied reliably and what insights it can provide to make good on that promise.

• Date:
  July 10, 2025, 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
  
  
• Location:

  AIP; Kirch building, Conference room

  
  
• Contact:
  Rainer Arlt
  rarlt@aip.de