Bibcode
Cerviño, M.; Luridiana, V.
Referencia bibliográfica
Astronomical Spectroscopy and Virtual Observatory, Proceedings of the EURO-VO Workshop, held at the European Space Astronomy Centre of ESA, Villafranca del Castillo, Spain, 21-23 March, 2007, Eds.: M. Guainazzi and P. Osuna, Published by the European Space Agency., p.175
Fecha de publicación:
10
2008
Número de citas
1
Número de citas referidas
1
Descripción
In this contribution we investigate how to describe the results and
usage of evolutionary synthesis models. In particular, we look for an
explicit and quantitative description of the parameter space of
synthesis models and the evaluation of their associated uncertainties
and dispersion. First, we need to understand what synthesis models
actually compute: we show that a synthetic stellar population with fixed
physical parameters (age, metallicity, star formation history, initial
mass function and size of the system) can only be described in terms of
probability distributions (i.e. there is an intrinsic dispersion in any
model). Second, we need to identify and characterise the coverage in the
parameter space of the models (i.e. the combinations of input parameters
that yield meaningful models) and the different sources of systematic
errors. Third, we need a way to describe quantitatively the intrinsic
dispersion, the systematic error and the parameter space coverage of the
models.
Up to now, the parameter space coverage and uncertainties have been
described qualitatively in the models' reference papers, with potential
misinterpretations by models' users. We show how Virtual Observatory
developments enable a correct use of synthesis models to obtain accurate
(and not simply precise) results.