Spinning Red Clocks in Crowded Fields

Abstract

To build a clear picture of the history of our Milky Way galaxy we need to be able to reliably measure the ages of the stars within it. Unfortunately the most common stars, M dwarfs, are resistant to most of our current age measuring techniques.This leaves gyrochronology, the use of an empirical relation between rotation and age, as our method for measuring M dwarf ages. Successful gyrochronology requires the study of open clusters spanning as wide a range of ages and metallicities as possible. In this dissertation I present the work I have done on advancing our understanding of spin-down in late K and early M dwarfs through observations of the 4 Gyr old open cluster M67. Future studies that include a wider sample of open clusters, and that push the observations to lower mass stars, will require high spatial resolution wide-field imaging to remain feasible. To this end, this dissertation also presents the work I have done in developing an advanced technique for the control systems of ground layer adaptive optics. This technique, which we have dubbed “temporal tomography” is expected to facilitate the widespread adoption of ground layer adaptive optics by reducing the number of guide stars needed to obtain accurate estimates of the ground layer turbulence. These systems will be capable of imaging crowded fields, such as the open clusters needed for calibrating gyrochronology.