Stellar Spins in the Pleiades, Praesepe, and M35 Open Clusters

We analyze spectroscopic and photometric data to determine the projected inclinations of stars in three open clusters: the Pleiades, Praesepe, and M35. We determine the sin i values of 42, 35, and 67 stars in each cluster, respectively, and from their distributions we find that isotropic spins and m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal Vol. 923; no. 1; pp. 23 - 39
Main Authors: Healy, Brian F., McCullough, P. R., Schlaufman, Kevin C.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 01.12.2021
IOP Publishing
Subjects:
Astrophysics
Cluster analysis
Inclination
Kinematics
Open clusters
Open star clusters
Star formation
Stars
Stellar rotation
Systematic errors
ISSN:0004-637X, 1538-4357
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We analyze spectroscopic and photometric data to determine the projected inclinations of stars in three open clusters: the Pleiades, Praesepe, and M35. We determine the sin i values of 42, 35, and 67 stars in each cluster, respectively, and from their distributions we find that isotropic spins and moderate alignment are both consistent with the Pleiades and Praesepe data. While it is difficult to distinguish between these scenarios for a single cluster, an ensemble of such distributions may facilitate a distinction. The M35 inclination distribution is most consistent with a superposition of isotropic and anisotropic spins, the source of which could be systematic error or a physical grouping of aligned stars. We also study internal cluster kinematics using radial velocities and proper motions. Our kinematics analysis reveals significant plane-of-sky rotation in Praesepe, with a mean velocity of 0.132 ± 0.022 km s −1 in a clockwise direction.
Bibliography:Stars and Stellar Physics
AAS33564
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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content type line 14
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ac281d