Magnetic fields in early stellar evolution: Improving mass and age estimates for young stars

Problems Mass and age predictions from stellar evolution models are fundamental to understanding a number of astrophysical processes that occur relatively early-on in the lives of stars and planetary systems. For example, the lifetime of gaseous protoplanetary disks, the formation time and subsequent evolution of giant planets (see poster #173, Mann et al.), and the form of the (sub)stellar initial mass function all depend critically on accurate model predictions of stellar masses and ages.