Identification of the Lithium Depletion Boundary and Age of the Southern Open Cluster Blanco 1

We present results from a spectroscopic study of the very low mass members of the Southern open cluster Blanco 1 using the Gemini-N telescope. We obtained intermediate resolution (R~4400) GMOS spectra for 15 cluster candidate members with I~14-20 mag, and employed a series of membership criteria - proximity to the cluster's sequence in an I/I-Ks color-magnitude diagram (CMD), kinematics agreeing with the cluster systemic motion, magnetic activity as a youth indicator - to classify 10 of these objects as probable cluster members. For these objects, we searched for the presence of the Li I 6708 A feature to identify the lithium depletion boundary (LDB) in Blanco 1. The I/I-Ks CMD shows a clear mass segregation in the Li distribution along the cluster sequence; namely, all higher mass stars are found to be Li-poor, while lower mass stars are found to be Li-rich. The division between Li-poor and Li-rich (i.e., the LDB) in Blanco 1 is found at I=$18.78 \pm 0.24$ and I-Ks=$3.05 \pm 0.10$. Using current pre-main-sequence evolutionary models we determine an LDB age of $132 \pm 24$ Myr. Comparing our derived LDB age to upper-main-sequence isochrone ages for Blanco 1, as well as for other open clusters with identified LDBs, we find good chronometric consistency when using stellar evolution models that incorporate a moderate degree of convective core overshoot.
6 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for Publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters