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Age is a stellar parameter that is both fundamental and difficult to determine. Among middle-aged M dwarfs, the most prolific hosts of close-in and detectable exoplanets, gyrochronology is the most promising method to assign ages, but requires calibration by rotation-temperature sequences (gyrochrones) in clusters of known ages. We curated a catalogue of 249 late K- and M-type (Teff = 3200–4200 K) exoplanet host stars with established rotation periods, and applied empirical, temperature-dependent rotation–age relations based on relevant published gyrochrones, including one derived from observations of the 4-Gyr-old open cluster M67. We estimated ages for 227 of these stars, and upper limits for eight others, excluding 14 which are too rapidly rotating or are otherwise outside the valid parameter range of our gyrochronology. We estimated uncertainties based on observed scatter in rotation periods in young clusters, error in the gyrochrones, and uncertainties in temperature and non-solar metallicity. For those stars with measured metallicities, we provide but do not incorporate a correction for the effects of deviation from solar-metallicity. The age distribution of our sample declines to near zero at 10 Gyr, the age of the Galactic disc, with the handful of outliers explainable by large uncertainties. Continued addition or extension of cluster rotation sequences to more thoroughly calibrate the gyrochronology in time and temperature space, more precise and robust measurement of rotation periods, and more accurate stellar parameter measurements will enable continued improvements in the age estimates of these important exoplanet host stars.

 

Early adaptive optics (AO) systems were designed with knowledge of a site’s distribution of Fried parameter (r0) and Greenwood time delay (τ0) values. Recent systems have leveraged additional knowledge of the distribution of turbulence with altitude. We present measurements of the atmosphere above Maunakea, Hawaii and how the temporal properties of the turbulence relate to tomographic reconstructions. We combine archival telemetry collected by ‘imaka—a ground layer AO (GLAO) system on the UH88” telescope—with data from the local weather towers, weather forecasting models, and weather balloon launches, to study how frequently one can map a turbulent layer’s wind vector to its altitude. Finally, we present the initial results of designing a new GLAO control system based off of these results, an approach we have named “temporal tomography.” 

Adaptive Optics (AO) used in ground based observatories can be strengthened in both design and algorithms by a more detailed understanding of the atmosphere they seek to correct. Nowhere is this more true than on Maunakea, where a clearer profile of the atmosphere informs AO system development from the small separations of Extreme AO (ExAO) to the wide field Ground Layer AO (GLAO). Employing telemetry obtained from the ımaka GLAO demonstrator on the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope, we apply a wind profiling method that identifies turbulent layer velocities through spatial-temporal cross correlations of multiple wavefront sensors (WFSs). We compare the derived layer velocities with nearby wind anemometer data and meteorological model predictions of the upper wind speeds and discuss similarities and differences. The strengths and limitations of this profiling method are evaluated through successful recovery of injected, simulated layers into real telemetry. We detail the profilers’ results, including the percentage of data with viable estimates, on four characteristic ımaka observing runs on open loop telemetry throughout both winter and summer targets. We report on how similar layers are to external measures, the confidence of these results, and the potential for future use of this technique on other multi conjugate AO systems. 

We present stellar rotation periods for late K- and early M-dwarf members of the 4 Gyr old open cluster M67 as calibrators for gyrochronology and tests of stellar spin-down models. Using Gaia EDR3 astrometry for cluster membership and Pan-STARRS (PS1) photometry for binary identification, we build this set of rotation periods from a campaign of monitoring M67 with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope’s MegaPrime wide-field imager. We identify 1807 members of M67, of which 294 are candidate single members with significant rotation period detections. Moreover, we fit a polynomial to the period versus color-derived effective temperature sequence observed in our data. We find that the rotation of very cool dwarfs can be explained by simple solid-body spin-down between 2.7 and 4 Gyr. We compare this rotational sequence to the predictions of gyrochronological models and find that the best match is Skumanich-like spin-down,P_rot∝t^0.62, applied to the sequence of Ruprecht 147. This suggests that, for spectral types K7–M0 with near-solar metallicity, once a star resumes spinning down, a simple Skumanich-like relation is sufficient to describe their rotation evolution, at least through the age of M67. Additionally, for stars in the range M1–M3, our data show that spin-down must have resumed prior to the age of M67, in conflict with the predictions of the latest spin-down models.

 

We report on progress at the University of Hawaii on the integration and testing setups for the adaptive secondary mirror (ASM) for the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii. We report on the development of the handling fixtures and alignment tools we will use along with progress on the optical metrology tools we will use for the lab and on-sky testing of the system.