The Age of the Oldest Stars in the Local Galactic Disk From Hipparcos Parallaxes of G and K Subgiants

We review the history of the discovery of field subgiant stars and their importance in the age dating of the Galactic disk. We use the cataloged data from the Hipparcos satellite in this latter capacity. Based on Hipparcos parallaxes accurate to 10% or better, the absolute magnitude of the lower envelope of the nearly horizontal subgiant sequence for field stars in the H-R diagram for B-V colors between 0.85 and 1.05 is measured to be M_V = 4.03 +/- 0.06. The age of the field stars in the solar neighborhood is found to be 7.9 +/- 0.7 Gyr by fitting the theoretical isochrones for [Fe/H] = +0.37 to the lower envelope of the Hipparcos subgiants. The same grid of isochrones yields ages, in turn, of 4.0 +/- 0.2 Gyr, 6.2 +/- 0.5 Gyr, and 7.5 to 10 Gyr for the old Galactic clusters M67, NGC188, and NGC6791. The ages of both the Galactic disk in the solar neighborhood and of NGC6791 are, nevertheless, likely between 3 and 5 Gyr younger than the oldest halo globular clusters, which have ages of 13.5 Gyr. The most significant results are (1) the supermetallicity of the oldest local disk stars, and (2) the large age difference between the most metal-poor component of the halo and the thick and thin disk in the solar neighborhood. These facts are undoubtedly related and pose again the problem of the proper scenario for the timing of events in the formation of the halo and the Galactic disk in the solar neighborhood. [Abstract Abridged]