The Age-Rotation-Activity Relation: From Myrs to Gyrs

TL;DR

This paper investigates the evolution of stellar rotation and magnetic activity over billions of years by analyzing light curves from the CCCP survey, focusing on the Praesepe cluster at 600 Myr to extend the age-rotation-activity relation.

Contribution

It provides new rotation period measurements for low-mass stars in Praesepe, filling a crucial gap for understanding late-stage stellar angular momentum evolution.

Findings

Identified a transition in the period-color relation at spectral type ~M1.

Measured rotation periods for 40,000+ low-mass stars in Praesepe.

Confirmed the broad consistency of spin-down models at 600 Myr.

Abstract

Over the past 40 years, observational surveys have established the existence of a tight relationship between a star's age, rotation period, and magnetic activity. This age-rotation-activity relation documents the interplay between a star's magnetic dynamo and angular momentum evolution, and provides a valuable age estimator for isolated field stars. While the age-rotation-activity relation has been studied extensively in clusters younger than 500 Myr, empirically measured rotation periods are scarce for older ages. Using the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), we have begun a survey of stellar rotation to map out the late-stage evolution of the age-rotation-activity relation: the Columbia/Cornell/Caltech PTF (CCCP) survey of open clusters. The first CCCP target is the nearby ~600 Myr Hyades-analog Praesepe, where PTF has produced light curves spanning more than 3 months and containing >150 measurements for ~650 cluster members. Analyzing these light curves, we have measured rotation periods for 40 K & M cluster members, filling the gap between the periods previously reported for solar-type Hyads (Radick et al. 1987, Prosser et al. 1995) and for a handful of low-mass Praesepe members (Scholz et al. 2007). Our measurements indicate that Praesepe's period-color relation undergoes at transition at a characteristic spectral type of ~M1 --- from a well-defined singular relation at higher mass, to a more scattered distribution of both fast and slow-rotators at lower masses. 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. In addition to presenting the results of our photometric monitoring of Praesepe, we summarize the status and future of the CCCP survey.