X-ray activity and rotation of the young stars in IC 348

TL;DR

This study examines the relationship between X-ray activity, rotation, and magnetic dynamo mechanisms in young stars of the IC 348 cluster, revealing that rotation is not the primary factor influencing X-ray activity at this age.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the X-ray activity and rotation relation in 3-million-year-old stars, highlighting the decreasing scatter of activity with stellar age and the limited role of rotation.

Findings

No correlation between X-ray activity and rotation period in IC 348 stars.

Most stars are in the saturated activity regime, with marginal super-saturation effects.

Scatter in X-ray activity decreases with stellar age, indicating evolving dynamo mechanisms.

Abstract

The physical origin of the strong magnetic activity in T Tauri stars and its relation to stellar rotation is not yet well understood. We investigate the relation between the X-ray activity, rotation, and Rossby number for a sample of 82 young stars in the ~3 Myr old cluster IC 348. We use the data of four Chandra observations of IC 348 to derive the X-ray luminosities of the young stars. The young stars in IC 348 show no correlation between X-ray activity and rotation period. Considering the Rossby numbers, nearly all IC 348 stars are in the saturated regime of the activity-rotation relation defined by main-sequence stars. Searching for possible super-saturation effects, we find a marginal (but statistically in-significant) trend that the stars with the smallest Rossby numbers show slightly lower X-ray activity levels. We compare the dispersion of fractional X-ray luminosities of the stars in the saturated rotation regime in IC 348 to that seen in younger and older stellar populations. The scatter seen in the ~3 Myr old IC 348 is considerably smaller than for the ~1 Myr old ONC, but, at the same time, considerably larger than the dispersion seen in the ~30 Myr old cluster NGC 2547 and in main-sequence stars. The results of our X-ray analysis of IC 348 show that neither the rotation rates nor the presence/absence of circumstellar disks are of fundamental importance for determining the level of X-ray activity in TTS. Our results suggest that the scatter of X-ray activity levels shown by the fast-rotating members of young clusters decreases with the age of the stellar population. We interpret this as a signature of the changing interior structure of PMS stars and the consequent changes in the dynamo mechanisms that are responsible for the magnetic field generation.