Impact of Rotation on the Evolution of Low-Mass Stars

TL;DR

This paper introduces a rotating stellar model for low-mass stars, improving understanding of their evolution and addressing discrepancies between observations and traditional models.

Contribution

It presents the first continuous rotating stellar model from pre-main sequence to horizontal branch, incorporating rotation effects into low-mass star evolution.

Findings

Predicted luminosity functions align better with observations.

Surface rotation velocities on the horizontal branch are characterized.

Rotation significantly influences stellar evolution pathways.

Abstract

High precision photometry and spectroscopy of low-mass stars reveal a variety of properties standard stellar evolution cannot predict. Rotation, an essential ingredient of stellar evolution, is a step towards resolving the discrepancy between model predictions and observations. The first rotating stellar model, continuously tracing a low-mass star from the pre-main sequence onto the horizontal branch, is presented. The predicted luminosity functions of stars of globular clusters and surface rotation velocities on the horizontal branch are discussed.