The Solar Twin Planet Search

IV. The Sun as a typical rotator and evidence for a new rotational braking law for Sun-like stars^⋆,⋆⋆

¹ Universidade de São PauloDepartamento de Astronomia do IAG/USP, Rua do Matão 1226, Cidade Universitária, 05508-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
e-mail: leonardoags@usp.br
² University of Chicago, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, IL 60637, USA
³ Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970 Natal, RN, Brazil
⁴ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
⁵ University of Texas, McDonald Observatory and Department of Astronomy at Austin, USA
⁶ The Australian National University, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Cotter Road, Weston, ACT 2611, Australia
⁷ University of Göttingen, Institut für Astrophysik, Germany
⁸ Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto de Física, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, 90650-002 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Received: 19 March 2016
Accepted: 20 June 2016

Abstract

Context. It is still unclear how common the Sun is when compared to other similar stars in regards to some of its physical properties, such as rotation. Considering that gyrochronology relations are widely used today to estimate ages of stars in the main sequence, and that the Sun is used to calibrate it, it is crucial to assess whether these procedures are acceptable.

Aims. We analyze the rotational velocities, limited by the unknown rotation axis inclination angle, of an unprecedented large sample of solar twins to study the rotational evolution of Sun-like stars, and assess whether the Sun is a typical rotator.

Methods. We used high-resolution (R = 115 000) spectra obtained with the HARPS spectrograph and the 3.6 m telescope at La Silla Observatory. The projected rotational velocities for 81 solar twins were estimated by line profile fitting with synthetic spectra. Macroturbulence velocities were inferred from a prescription that accurately reflects their dependence with effective temperature and luminosity of the stars.

Results. Our sample of solar twins include some spectroscopic binaries with enhanced rotational velocities, and we do not find any nonspectroscopic binaries with unusually high rotation velocities. We verified that the Sun does not have a peculiar rotation, but the solar twins exhibit rotational velocities that depart from the Skumanich relation.

Conclusions. The Sun is a regular rotator when compared to solar twins with a similar age. Additionally, we obtain a rotational braking law that better describes the stars in our sample (v ∝ t^-0.6) in contrast to previous, often-used scalings.