The rotational velocities of low-mass stars

Details The rotational velocities of low-mass stars The rotational velocities of low-mass stars

Dec 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986pasp...98.1233s&link_type=abstract

Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Publications (ISSN 0004-6280), vol. 98, Dec. 1986, p. 1233-1251.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

49

Angular Velocity, Stellar Evolution, Stellar Mass, Stellar Rotation, Angular Momentum, Dwarf Stars, G Stars, Late Stars, Main Sequence Stars

Scientific paper

The rotational velocities of stars provide important clues to how stars form and evolve. Yet until recently, studies of stellar rotation were limited to stars more massive than the sun. This is beginning to change, and an observational outline of the rotational velocity evolution of stars less massive than the sun can now be provided. Low-mass stars rotate slowly during the early stages of premain-sequence evolution, and spin up as they contract to the main sequence. This spin-up culminates in a brief period of very rapid rotation at an age of order 50 million years. Physical interpretation of this increase in rotation and the subsequent main-sequence spin-down are complicated by the possibility of differential internal rotation. The observed rapidity of spin-down among G dwarfs suggests that initially only the outer convective envelopes of these stars are slowed. The data suggest an intrinsic spread in angular momentum among young stars of the same mass and age, a spread which is apparently minimized by the angular-momentum loss mechanism in old low-mass stars.

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