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Weighing stars from birth to death: mass determination methods across the HRD

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arxiv 2006.10868 v2 pith:XQJMWPSW submitted 2020-06-18 astro-ph.SR

Weighing stars from birth to death: mass determination methods across the HRD

classification astro-ph.SR
keywords methodsmassstarsotherstellarapproachdetermineevolved
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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The mass of a star is the most fundamental parameter for its structure, evolution, and final fate. It is particularly important for any kind of stellar archaeology and characterization of exoplanets. There exists a variety of methods in astronomy to estimate or determine it. In this review we present a significant number of such methods, beginning with the most direct and model-independent approach using detached eclipsing binaries. We then move to more indirect and model-dependent methods, such as the quite commonly used isochrone or stellar track fitting. The arrival of quantitative asteroseismology has opened a completely new approach to determine stellar masses and to complement and improve the accuracy of other methods. We include methods for different evolutionary stages, from the pre-main sequence to evolved (super)giants and final remnants. For all methods uncertainties and restrictions will be discussed. We provide lists of altogether more than 200 benchmark stars with relative mass accuracies between $[0.3,2]\%$ for the covered mass range of $M\in [0.1,16]\,\msun$, $75\%$ of which are stars burning hydrogen in their core and the other $25\%$ covering all other evolved stages. We close with a recommendation how to combine various methods to arrive at a "mass-ladder" for stars.

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Cited by 1 Pith paper

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. The Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) -- A Legacy Archive of Stellar Time-Domain Spectroscopy

    astro-ph.SR 2026-07 accept novelty 3.5

    The SONG network archive holds >580,000 spectra of 3091 stars (2014–2025) and is presented as an open community resource for asteroseismology, binaries, variability, and exoplanets.