Measuring stellar rotation periods with Kepler

TL;DR

This study measures rotation periods for over 12,000 stars in the Kepler field using photometric variability, enabling analysis of stellar rotation as a function of spectral type and age.

Contribution

It provides a large, stable dataset of stellar rotation periods from Kepler data, improving understanding of stellar rotation and age relations.

Findings

Rotation periods are consistent over multiple quarters.

Cool stars are mostly younger than 1 billion years.

Good agreement with previous measurements for F, G, and K stars.

Abstract

We measure rotation periods for 12151 stars in the Kepler field, based on the photometric variability caused by stellar activity. Our analysis returns stable rotation periods over at least six out of eight quarters of Kepler data. This large sample of stars enables us to study the rotation periods as a function of spectral type. We find good agreement with previous studies and vsini measurements for F, G and K stars. Combining rotation periods, B-V color, and gyrochronology relations, we find that the cool stars in our sample are predominantly younger than ~1Gyr.