Rotation rates of late-type stars in open clusters 300Myr-1Gyr old

巴恩斯博士将对附近的星团进行广泛的调查，目的是确定自转速度与恒星质量和年龄的关系。太阳类型恒星的自转周期将使用精度优于1%的光度观测来确定，这些恒星位于精心挑选的星团中，年龄从3亿年到10亿年不等。观测结果将与恒星的旋转演化模型进行比较，不仅涉及年龄和质量，还将与其他性质进行比较，如恒星与其星周圆盘之间的相互作用程度。该项目可能为磁盘锁定在慢旋转和快旋转区域之间的作用、固体旋转与差异旋转的发生率以及磁饱和提供新的见解。这些问题直接有助于我们理解太阳自转和活动水平之间的相互作用。该项目的资金由美国国家科学基金会恒星天文与天体物理学计划(AST/SAA)提供。

Dr. Barnes will undertake an extensive survey of nearby stellar clusters whose goal is to determine the dependence of rotation rate on stellar mass and age. The rotation periods will be determined for solar-type stars in carefully selected clusters with ages ranging from 300 million years to 1 billion years using photometric observations with a precision of better than one percent. The observational results will be compared to models for the rotational evolution of stars, not only with respect to age and mass, but also to other properties such as the degree of interaction between stars and their circumstellar disks. This project is likely to provide new insight into the role of magnetic disk locking between slow and fast rotation zones, the incidence of solid versus differential rotation, and magnetic saturation. These issues directly contribute to our understanding of the interplay between the Sun's rotation and activity level. Funding for this project is provided by the NSF program for Stellar Astronomy & Astrophysics (AST/SAA).