No Arabic abstract
We present the results of a spectroscopic investigation of 108 nearby field B-stars. We derive their key stellar parameters, $V sin i$, $T_{rm eff}$, $log g$, and $log g_{rm polar}$, using the same methods that we used in our previous cluster B-star survey. By comparing the results of the field and the cluster samples, we find that the main reason for the overall slower rotation of the field sample is that it contains a larger fraction of older stars than found in the (mainly young) cluster sample.
We continue our studies on stellar latitudinal differential rotation. The presented work is a sequel of the work of Reiners et al. who studied the spectral line broadening profile of hundreds of stars of spectral types A through G at high rotational speed (vsini > 12 km/s). While most stars were found to be rigid rotators, only a few tens show the signatures of differential rotation. The present work comprises the rotational study of some 180 additional stars. The overall broadening profile is derived according to Reiners et al. from hundreds of spectral lines by least-squares deconvolution, reducing spectral noise to a minimum. Projected rotational velocities vsini are measured for about 120 of the sample stars. Differential rotation produces a cuspy line shape which is best measured in inverse wavelength space by the first two zeros of its Fourier transform. Rigid and differential rotation can be distinguished for more than 50 rapid rotators (vsini > 12 km/s) among the sample stars from the available spectra. Ten stars with significant differential rotation rates of 10-54 % are identified, which add to the few known rapid differential rotators. Differential rotation measurements of 6 % and less for four of our targets are probably spurious and below the detection limit. Including these objects, the line shapes of more than 40 stars are consistent with rigid rotation.
We present rotation periods for 71 single dwarf members of the open cluster NGC6811 determined using photometry from NASAs Kepler Mission. The results are the first from The Kepler Cluster Study which combine Keplers photometry with ground-based spectroscopy for cluster membership and binarity. The rotation periods delineate a tight sequence in the NGC6811 color-period diagram from ~1 day at mid-F to ~11 days at early-K spectral type. This result extends to ~1 Gyr similar prior results in the ~600 Myr Hyades and Praesepe clusters, suggesting that rotation periods for cool dwarf stars delineate a well-defined surface in the 3-dimensional space of color (mass), rotation, and age. It implies that reliable ages can be derived for field dwarf stars with measured colors and rotation periods, and it promises to enable further understanding of various aspects of stellar rotation and activity for cool stars.
The unparalleled photometric data obtained by NASAs Kepler Space Telescope has led to an improved understanding of stellar structure and evolution - in particular for solar-like oscillators in this context. Binary stars are fascinating objects. Because they were formed together, binary systems provide a set of two stars with very well constrained parameters. Those can be used to study properties and physical processes, such as the stellar rotation, dynamics and rotational mixing of elements and allows us to learn from the differences we find between the two components. In this work, we discussed a detailed study of the binary system KIC9163796, discovered through Kepler photometry. The ground-based follow-up spectroscopy showed that this system is a double-lined spectroscopic binary, with a mass ratio close to unity. However, the fundamental parameters of the components of this system as well as their lithium abundances differ substantially. Kepler photometry of this system allows to perform a detailed seismic analysis as well as to derive the orbital period and the surface rotation rate of the primary component of the system. Indications of the seismic signature of the secondary are found. The differing parameters are best explained with both components located in the early and the late phase of the first dredge up at the bottom of the red-giant branch. Observed lithium abundances in both components are in good agreement with prediction of stellar models including rotational mixing. By combining observations and theory, a comprehensive picture of the system can be drawn.
Observations of the rotation rates of horizontal branch (HB) stars show puzzling systematics. In particular, cooler HB stars often show rapid rotation (with velocities in excess of 10 km/s), while hotter HB stars typically show much smaller rotation velocities. Simple models of angular momentum evolution of stars from the main sequence through the red giant branch fail to explain these effects. In general, evolutionary models in all cases preserve a rapidly rotating core. The observed angular velocities of HB stars require that some of the angular momentum stored in the core reaches the surface. To test the idea that HB stars contain such a core, one can appeal to detailed computations of trace element abundences and rotational mixing. However, a more direct probe is available to test these limiting cases of angular momentum evolution. Some of the hottest horizontal branch stars are members of the pulsating sdB class. They frequently show rich pulsation spectra characteristic of nonradially pulsating stars. Thus their pulsations probe the internal rotation of these stars, and should show the effects of rapid rotation in their cores. Using models of sdB stars that include angular momentum evolution, we explore this possibility and show that some of the sdB pulsators may indeed have rapidly rotating cores.
The magnetic activity of late-type MS stars is characterized by different regimes, and their activity levels are well described by Ro, the ratio between P_rot and the convective turnover time. Very young PMS stars show, similarly to MS stars, intense magnetic activity. However they do not show clear activity-rotation trends, and it still debated which stellar parameters determine their magnetic activity levels. To bridge the gap between MS and PMS stars, we studied the activity-rotation relation in the young cluster h Per, a ~13 Myr old cluster, that contains both fast and slow rotators, whose members have ended their accretion phase and have already developed a radiative core. It offers us the opportunity to study the activity level of intermediate-age PMS stars with different rotational velocities, excluding any interactions with the circumstellar environment. We constrained the magnetic activity levels of h Per members measuring their X-ray emission from a Chandra observation, while P_rot were obtained by Moraux et al. (2013). We collected a final catalog of 414 h Per members with known P_rot, T_eff, M_star, with 169 of them having also detected X-ray emission. We found that h Per members, with 1.0 M_sun < M_star < 1.4 M_sun, display different activity regimes: fast rotators show supersaturation, while slower rotators have activity levels compatible to the non-saturated regime. At 13 Myr h Per is therefore the youngest cluster showing activity-rotation regimes analogous to that of MS stars, indicating that, at this age, magnetic field production is likely regulated by the alpha-Omega type dynamo. Moreover we observed that supersaturation is better described by P_rot than Ro, and that the observed patterns are compatible with the hypothesis of centrifugal stripping. In this scenario we inferred that coronae can produce structures as large as ~2 R_star above the stellar surface.