We have obtained near-IR photometry for the 11 Praesepe white dwarfs, to search for an excess indicative of a dusty debris disk. All the white dwarfs are in the DAZ temperature regime, however we find no indications of a disk around any white dwarf. We have, however determined that the radial velocity variable white dwarf WD0837+185 could have an unresolved T8 dwarf companion that would not be seen as a near-IR excess.
Previously [Y/Mg] has been proven to be an age indicator for solar twins. Here, we investigate if this relation also holds for helium-core-burning stars of solar metallicity. High resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) spectroscopic data of stars in the helium-core-burning phase have been obtained with the FIES spectrograph on the NOT 2.56m telescope and the HIRES spectrograph on the Keck I 10 m telescope. They have been analyzed to determine the chemical abundances of four open clusters with close to solar metallicity; NGC 6811, NGC 6819, M67 and NGC 188. The abundances are derived from equivalent widths of spectral lines using ATLAS9 model atmospheres with parameters determined from the excitation and ionization balance of Fe lines. Results from asteroseismology and binary studies were used as priors on the atmospheric parameters, where especially the $log g$ is determined to much higher precision than what is possible with spectroscopy. It is confirmed that the four open clusters are close to solar metallicity and they follow the [Y/Mg] vs. age trend previously found for solar twins. The [Y/Mg] vs. age clock also works for giant stars in the helium-core burning phase, which vastly increases the possibilities to estimate the age of stars not only in the solar neighborhood, but in large parts of the Galaxy, due to the brighter nature of evolved stars compared to dwarfs.
We have obtained a low-resolution optical spectrum for one of the faintest cluster member candidates in Praesepe with the Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy mounted on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio de Canarias. We confirm spectroscopically the first L dwarf member in Praesepe, UGCS J084510.66+214817.1. We derived an optical spectral type of L0.3+/-0.4 and estimated its effective temperature to Teff=2279+/-371 K and a mass of 71.1+/-23.0M_Jup, according to state-of-the-art models, placing it at the hydrogen-burning boundary. We measured the equivalent width of the gravity-sensitive sodium doublet at 8182/8194 A, which adds credit to the membership of this new L dwarf to Praesepe. We also derived a probability of ~20.5% that our candidate would be a field L0 dwarf. We conclude that this object is likely to be a true member of Praesepe, with evidence of being a binary system.
We present CCD photometric observations of an eclipsing binary in the direction of the open cluster Praesepe using the 2 m telescope of IUCAA Girawali Observatory, India. Though the system was classified as an eclipsing binary by Pepper et al.(2008),detail investigations were lacking. The photometric solutions using the Wilson-Devinney code suggest that it is a W-type W UMa system and interestingly, the system parameters were similar to another contact binary system SW Lac.
We investigate the rotation periods of fully convective very low mass stars (VLM, M<0.3 Msol), with the aim to derive empirical constraints for the spindown due to magnetically driven stellar winds. Our analysis is based on a new sample of rotation periods in the main-sequence cluster Praesepe (age 600 Myr). From photometric lightcurves obtained with the Isaac Newton Telescope, we measure rotation periods for 49 objects, among them 26 in the VLM domain. This enlarges the period sample in this mass and age regime by a factor of 6. Almost all VLM objects in our sample are fast rotators with periods <2.5 d, in contrast to the stars with M>0.6 Msol in this cluster which have periods of 7-14 d. Thus, we confirm that the period-mass distribution in Praesepe exhibits a radical break at M~0.3-0.6 Msol. Our data indicate a positive period-mass trend in the VLM regime, similar to younger clusters. In addition, the scatter of the periods increases with mass. For the M>0.3 Msol objects in our sample the period distribution is probably affected by binarity. By comparing the Praesepe periods with literature samples in the cluster NGC2516 (age ~150 Myr) we constrain the spindown in the VLM regime. An exponential rotational braking law P ~ exp(t/tau) with a mass-dependent tau is required to reproduce the data. The spindown timescale tau increases steeply towards lower masses; we derive tau~0.5 Gyr for 0.3 Msol and >1 Gyr for 0.1 Msol. These constraints are consistent with the current paradigm of the spindown due to wind braking. We discuss possible physical origins of this behaviour and prospects for future work.
We identify and roughly characterize 66 candidate binary star systems in the Pleiades, Praesepe, and NGC 2264 star clusters based on robotic adaptive optics imaging data obtained using Robo-AO at the Palomar 60 telescope. Only $sim$10% of our imaged pairs were previously known. We detect companions at red optical wavelengths having physical separations ranging from a few tens to a few thousand AU. A 3-sigma contrast curve generated for each final image provides upper limits to the brightness ratios for any undetected putative companions. The observations are sensitive to companions with maximum contrast $sim$6$^m$ at larger separations. At smaller separations, the mean (best) raw contrast at 2 arcsec is 3.8$^m$ (6$^m$), at 1 arcsec is 3.0$^m$ (4.5$^m$), and at 0.5 arcsec is 1.9$^m$ (3$^m$). PSF subtraction can recover close to the full contrast in to the closer separations. For detected candidate binary pairs, we report separations, position angles, and relative magnitudes. Theoretical isochrones appropriate to the Pleiades and Praesepe clusters are then used to determine the corresponding binary mass ratios, which range from 0.2-0.9 in $q=m_2/m_1$. For our sample of roughly solar-mass (FGK type) stars in NGC 2264 and sub-solar-mass (K and early M-type) primaries in the Pleiades and Praesepe, the overall binary frequency is measured at $sim$15.5% $pm$ 2%. However, this value should be considered a lower limit to the true binary fraction within the specified separation and mass ratio ranges in these clusters, given that complex and uncertain corrections for sensitivity and completeness have not been applied.