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Title: A 4 Gyr M-dwarf Gyrochrone from CFHT/MegaPrime Monitoring of the Open Cluster M67
Abstract We present stellar rotation periods for late K- and early M-dwarf members of the 4 Gyr old open cluster M67 as calibrators for gyrochronology and tests of stellar spin-down models. Using Gaia EDR3 astrometry for cluster membership and Pan-STARRS (PS1) photometry for binary identification, we build this set of rotation periods from a campaign of monitoring M67 with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope’s MegaPrime wide-field imager. We identify 1807 members of M67, of which 294 are candidate single members with significant rotation period detections. Moreover, we fit a polynomial to the period versus color-derived effective temperature sequence observed in our data. We find that the rotation of very cool dwarfs can be explained by simple solid-body spin-down between 2.7 and 4 Gyr. We compare this rotational sequence to the predictions of gyrochronological models and find that the best match is Skumanich-like spin-down,Prot∝t0.62, applied to the sequence of Ruprecht 147. This suggests that, for spectral types K7–M0 with near-solar metallicity, once a star resumes spinning down, a simple Skumanich-like relation is sufficient to describe their rotation evolution, at least through the age of M67. Additionally, for stars in the range M1–M3, our data show that spin-down must have resumed prior to the age of M67, in conflict with the predictions of the latest spin-down models.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1817215
PAR ID:
10376230
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume:
938
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0004-637X
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: Article No. 118
Size(s):
Article No. 118
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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