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K. G. Stassun (Vanderbilt Univ.)
We present results from a photometric and spectroscopic study of very young, very low-mass, eclipsing binary stars. The accurate, empirical physical parameters (masses, radii, etc) determined from these systems provide critical constraints on pre-main-sequence stellar evolution models. These models are fundamental to our understanding of stellar initial mass functions and the timescales for circumstellar disk evolution and planet formation. This program has so far yielded the first empirical mass determinations for pre-main-sequence stars less massive than the Sun and accurate to ~1%, as well as the first accurate empirical mass determinations for pre-main-sequence brown dwarfs. As part of the overall ``system" of telescopes available to the astronomical community, the observing modes made possible by the SMARTS small telescopes are critical to this effort.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.