Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

New Rotation Periods In The Pleiades: Interpreting Activity Indicators, Anita Krishnamurthi, D. M. Terndrup, M. H. Pinsonneault, K. Sellgren, John R. Stauffer, Rudolph Schild, D. E. Backman, K. B. Beisser, D. B. Dahari, Amil Dasgupta, J. T. Hagelgans, M. A. Seeds, Rajan Anand '98, Bentley D. Laaksonen '95, Laurence A. Marschall, T. Ramseyer

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present results of photometric monitoring campaigns of G, K and M dwarfs in the Pleiades carried out in 1994, 1995 and 1996. We have determined rotation periods for 18 stars in this cluster. In this paper, we examine the validity of using observables such as X-ray activity and amplitude of photometric variations as indicators of angular momentum loss. We report the discovery of cool, slow rotators with high amplitudes of variation. This contradicts previous conclusions about the use of amplitudes as an alternate diagnostic of the saturation of angular momentum loss. We show that the X-ray data can be …