The rotational evolution of low-mass stars

Abstract

We summarise recent progress in the understanding of the rotational evolution of low-mass stars (here defined as solar mass down to the hydrogen burning limit) both in terms of observations and modelling. Wide-field imaging surveys on moderate-size telescopes can now efficiently derive rotation periods for hundreds to thousands of open cluster members, providing unprecedented sample sizes which are ripe for exploration. We summarise the available measurements, and provide simple phenomenological and model-based interpretations of the presently-available data, while highlighting regions of parameter space where more observations are required, particularly at the lowest masses and ages >~ 500 Myr.

10 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. To appear in the Proceedings of the 258th IAU Symposium: "The Ages of Stars", October 2008, Baltimore, MD, USA