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Title: Further Evidence of Modified Spin-down in Sun-like Stars: Pileups in the Temperature–Period Distribution

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [5]
  1. Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States); American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York, NY (United States)
  2. Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States); American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York, NY (United States); Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  3. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  4. Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)
  5. American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York, NY (United States)
  6. Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States)
  7. American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York, NY (United States); Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
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We combine stellar surface rotation periods determined from NASA's Kepler mission with spectroscopic temperatures to demonstrate the existence of pileups at the long-period and short-period edges of the temperature–period distribution for main-sequence stars with temperatures exceeding ~5500 K. The long-period pileup is well described by a curve of constant Rossby number, with a critical value of Rocrit ≲ Ro⊙. The long-period pileup was predicted by van Saders et al. as a consequence of weakened magnetic braking, in which wind-driven angular momentum losses cease once stars reach a critical Rossby number. Stars in the long-period pileup are found to have a wide range of ages (~2–6 Gyr), meaning that, along the pileup, rotation period is strongly predictive of a star's surface temperature but weakly predictive of its age. The short-period pileup, which is also well described by a curve of constant Rossby number, is not a prediction of the weakened magnetic braking hypothesis but may instead be related to a phase of slowed surface spin-down due to core-envelope coupling. The same mechanism was proposed by Curtis et al. to explain the overlapping rotation sequences of low-mass members of differently aged open clusters. The relative dearth of stars with intermediate rotation periods between the short- and long-period pileups is also well described by a curve of constant Rossby number, which aligns with the period gap initially discovered by McQuillan et al. in M-type stars. These observations provide further support for the hypothesis that the period gap is due to stellar astrophysics, rather than a nonuniform star formation history in the Kepler field.

Research Organization:
US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Science, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI ID:
1983268
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 933, Issue 1; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Stellar rotation
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Stellar winds