Rotation Distributions around the Kraft Break with TESS and Kepler: The Influences of Age, Metallicity, and Binarity

TL;DR

This study combines TESS, Kepler, APOGEE, and Gaia data to analyze how stellar rotation varies with age, metallicity, and binarity, revealing the effects of close binary companions on stellar rotation.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive dataset integrating multiple surveys to study stellar rotation and clarifies the influence of binarity on rotation rates.

Findings

Rotation periods can be tracked along stellar mass and age.

No significant correlation between rotation and metallicity was found.

Close binary companions lead to faster stellar rotation.

Abstract

Stellar rotation is a complex function of mass, metallicity, and age and can be altered by binarity. To understand the importance of these parameters in main sequence stars, we have assembled a sample of observations that spans a range of these parameters using a combination of observations from The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the Kepler Space Telescope. We find that while we can measure rotation periods and identify other classes of stellar variability (e.g., pulsations) from TESS lightcurves, instrument systematics prevent the detection of rotation signals longer than the TESS orbital period of 13.7 days. Due to this detection limit, we also utilize rotation periods constrained using rotational velocities measured by the APOGEE spectroscopic survey and radii estimated using the Gaia mission for both TESS and Kepler stars. From these rotation periods, we 1) find we can track rotational evolution along discrete mass tracks as a function of stellar age, 2) find we are unable to recover trends between rotation and metallicity that were observed by previous studies, and 3) note that our sample reveals that wide binary companions do not affect rotation, while close binary companions cause stars to exhibit more rapid rotation than single stars.