2025MNRAS.539.1922S -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 539, 1922-1943 (2025/May-3)
Modelling the emergence and evolution of the rotation-activity relation.
STUART K.A. and GREGORY S.G.
Abstract (from CDS):
Main-sequence stars follow a well-defined rotation-activity relation. There are two primary regimes: saturated, where the fractional X-ray luminosity $\log (L_{\rm X}/L_*)$ is approximately constant, and unsaturated, where the fractional X-ray luminosity decreases with increasing Rossby number (or decreasing rotation rate). Pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars have a larger scatter in $\log (L_{\rm X}/L_*)$ than main-sequence stars, are observed to have saturated levels of X-ray emission, and do not follow the rotation-activity relation. We investigate how PMS stars evolve in the rotation-activity plane and the time-scale over which the X-ray rotation-activity relation emerges. Using observational data of $\sim$600 stars from four PMS clusters, stellar internal structure models, a rotational evolution model, and observed X-ray luminosity trends with age, we simulate the evolution of the PMS stars in the rotation-activity plane up to ages of 100 Myr. Our model reproduces the rotation-activity relation found for main-sequence stars, with higher mass stars beginning to form the unsaturated regime from around 10 Myr. After $\sim$25 Myr, the gradient of the unsaturated regime matches that found for main-sequence stars. For stars of mass greater than 0.6 M$_{\odot }$, the maximum age by which a star has left the saturated regime correlates with when the star leaves the PMS. We find that an intracluster age spread is a key factor in contributing to the observed scatter in $\log (L_{\rm X}/L_*)$, particularly for ages < 10 Myr.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
stars: activity - stars: evolution - stars: pre-main-sequence - stars: rotation - X-rays: stars
Simbad objects:
10
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