The Rotational Evolution of Young, Binary M Dwarfs

TL;DR

This study investigates the rotational evolution of low-mass binary M dwarfs across different ages, revealing how binary status and circumstellar disks influence stellar rotation rates over time.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how binary interactions and disk presence affect the rotational evolution of low-mass stars from young to older ages.

Findings

Binary M dwarfs have shorter rotation periods than single stars at young ages.

Presence of circumstellar disks correlates with longer rotation periods in young stars.

Differences in rotation rates between singles and binaries diminish by Praesepe age.

Abstract

We have analysed K2 light curves for more than 3,000 low mass stars in the $\sim$8 Myr old Upper Sco association, the $\sim$125 Myr age Pleiades open cluster and the $\sim$700 Myr old Hyades and Praesepe open clusters to determine stellar rotation rates. Many of these K2 targets show two distinct periods, and for the lowest mass stars in these clusters virtually all of these systems with two periods are photometric binaries. The most likely explanation is that we are detecting the rotation periods for both components of these binaries. We explore the evolution of the rotation rate in both components of photometric binaries relative to one another and to non-photometric binary stars. In Upper Sco and the Pleiades, these low mass binary stars have periods that are much shorter on average and much closer to each other than would be true if drawn at random from the M dwarf single stars. In Upper Sco, this difference correlates strongly with the presence or absence of infrared excesses due to primordial circumstellar disks -- the single star population includes many stars with disks, and their rotation periods are distinctively longer on average than their binary star cousins of the same mass. By Praesepe age, the significance of the difference in rotation rate between the single and binary low mass dMs is much less, suggesting that angular momentum loss from winds for fully-convective zero-age main sequence stars erases memory of the rotation rate dichotomy for binary and single very low mass stars at later ages.