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Register a new userStellar rotation in the Hyades and Praesepe: gyrochronology and braking timescale
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We present the results of photometric surveys for stellar rotation in the Hyades and in Praesepe, using data obtained as part of the SuperWASP exoplanetary transit-search programme.We determined accurate rotation periods for more than 120 sources whose cluster membership was confirmed by common proper motion and colour-magnitude fits to the clusters isochrones. This allowed us to determine the effect of magnetic braking on a wide range of spectral types for expected ages of ~600Myr for the Hyades and Praesepe. Both clusters show a tight and nearly linear relation between J - Ks colour and rotation period in the F,G and K spectral range. This confirms that loss of angular momentum was significant enough that stars with strongly different initial rotation rates have converged to the same rotation period for a given mass, by the age of Hyades and Praesepe. In the case of the Hyades our colour-period sequence extends well into the M dwarf regime and shows a steep increase in the scatter of the colour- period relation, with identification of numerous rapid rotators from 0.5SM down to the lowest masses probed by our survey (0.25SM). This provides crucial constraints on the rotational braking timescales and further clears the way to use gyrochronology as an accurate age measurement tool for main-sequence stars.
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D. Barrado y Navascues n MEC/Fulbright Fellow at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
1998
Randich and Schmitt [1995, A&A 298, 115] found that the coronal activity of solar-type and low mass stars in Praesepe is significantly lower than that of stars in the Hyades cluster. We have carried out several tests in order to find a possible explanation for this result. We have measured radial velocities of two groups of Praesepe stars (a dF-dK sample and a dM sample) and have measured H$alpha$ as a chromospheric activity index for the dM sample. We conclude that the Praesepe catalog used in the X-ray analysis does not contain a significant number of non-members. The comparison of the H$alpha$ equivalent widths for the M dwarfs in Praesepe with those in the Hyades indicates that, at least for stars in this mass range, the Praesepe stars are as active or more active than their Hyades counterparts. We have also analyzed a few ROSAT PSPC pointings of Praesepe in order to obtain a new and independent estimate of the X-ray luminosities and upper limits for a small sample of Praesepe members concluding that the small differences between the old and new upper limits are not large enough to explain the dichotomy in the X-ray properties of Praesepe and the Hyades. Therefore, our examination of the available data does not provide a clear reason to explain why the X-ray luminosity functions of the two clusters are different. Part of the explanation could be found in the binaries. Speculatively, these clusters could have different orbital period distributions, with more short period binaries among the Hyades, which would show larger coronal activity.
Flares, energetic eruptions on the surfaces of stars, are an unmistakable manifestation of magnetically driven emission. Their occurrence rates and energy distributions trace stellar characteristics such as mass and age. But before flares can be used to constrain stellar properties, the flaring-age-mass relation requires proper calibration. This work sets out to quantify flaring activity of independently age-dated main sequence stars for a broad range of spectral types using optical light curves obtained by the Kepler satellite. Drawing from the complete K2 archive, we searched 3435 $sim 80$ day long light curves of 2111 open cluster members for flares using the open-source software packages K2SC to remove instrumental and astrophysical variability from K2 light curves, and AltaiPony to search and characterize the flare candidates. We confirmed a total of 3844 flares on high probability open cluster members with ages from zero age main sequence (Pleiades) to 3.6 Gyr (M67). We extended the mass range probed in the first study of this series to span from Sun-like stars to mid-M dwarfs. We added the Hyades (690 Myr) to the sample as a comparison cluster to Praesepe (750 Myr), the 2.6 Gyr old Ruprecht 147, and several hundred light curves from the late K2 Campaigns in the remaining clusters. The flare energy distribution was similar in the entire parameter space, following a power law relation with exponent $alphaapprox 1.84-2.39$. The flaring rates declined with age, and declined faster for higher mass stars. We found evidence that a rapid decline in flaring activity occurred in M1-M2 dwarfs around Hyades/Praesepe age, when these stars spun down to rotation periods of about 10 days, while higher mass stars had already transitioned to lower flaring rates, and lower mass stars still resided in the saturated activity regime. (abridged)
Our scientific goal is to provide a 3D map of the nearest open cluster to the Sun, the Hyades, combining the recent release of Gaia astrometric data, ground-based parallaxes of sub-stellar member candidates and photometric data from surveys which cover large areas of the cluster. We combined the second Gaia release with ground-based H-band parallaxes obtained with the infrared camera on the 2-m robotic Liverpool telescope to astrometrically identify stellar and sub-stellar members of the Hyades, the nearest open cluster to the Sun. We find 1764 objects within 70 degree radius from the cluster center from the Gaia second data release, whose kinematic properties are consistent with the Hyades. We limit our study to 30 pc from the cluster center (47.03+/-0.20 pc) where we identify 710 candidate members, including 85 and 385 in the core and tidal radius, respectively. We determine proper motions and parallaxes of eight candidate brown dwarf members and confirm their membership. Using the 3D positions and a model-based mass-luminosity relation we derive a luminosity and mass function in the 0.04 to 2.5 Msun range. We confirm evidence for mass segregation in the Hyades and find a dearth of brown dwarfs in the core of the cluster. From the white dwarf members we estimate an age of 640$^{+67}_{-49}$ Myr. We identify a list of members in the Hyades cluster from the most massive stars down to the brown dwarfs. We produce for the first time a 3D map of the Hyades cluster in the stellar and sub-stellar regimes and make available the list of candidate members.
Stellar rotation periods measured from single-age populations are critical for investigating how stellar angular momentum content evolves over time, how that evolution depends on mass, and how rotation influences the stellar dynamo and the magnetically heated chromosphere and corona. We report rotation periods for 40 late-K to mid-M stars members of the nearby, rich, intermediate-age (~600 Myr) open cluster Praesepe. These rotation periods were derived from ~200 observations taken by the Palomar Transient Factory of four cluster fields from 2010 February to May. Our measurements indicate that Praesepes mass-period relation transitions from a well-defined singular relation to a more scattered distribution of both fast and slow rotators at ~0.6 Msun. The location of this transition is broadly consistent with expectations based on observations of younger clusters and the assumption that stellar-spin down is the dominant mechanism influencing angular momentum evolution at 600 Myr. However, a comparison to data recently published for the Hyades, assumed to be coeval to Praesepe, indicates that the divergence from a singular mass-period relation occurs at different characteristic masses, strengthening the finding that Praesepe is the younger of the two clusters. We also use previously published relations describing the evolution of rotation periods as a function of color and mass to evolve the sample of Praesepe periods in time. Comparing the resulting predictions to periods measured in M35 and NGC 2516 (~150 Myr) and for kinematically selected young and old field star populations suggests that stellar spin-down may progress more slowly than described by these relations.
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.
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