David R. Soderblom

The evolution of the lithium abundances of solar-type stars. III - The Pleiades

New measurements of lithium in more than 100 Pleiades F, G, and K dwarfs are reported. Abundances are determined from spectrum synthesis fits to the data as well as from use of new covers of growth from the Li 6708-A feature. It is argued that most Late-F and early-G dwarfs in the Pleiades are consistent with the tight N(Li) vs mass relation seen in the Hyades in the same mass range. Most Li-rich stars have abundances at or near the primordial level for Population I, and none exceed that level by a significant amount. At any given color the stars that rotate fast have the most Li and have the strongest chromospheric activity. Ways in which an apparent spread in N(Li) could arise from an intrinsically tight n(Li)-mass relation are considered, and it is concluded that the spread is probably real and is not an artifact of line formation conditions or inhomogeneous atmospheres on the stars.

The Problem of Hipparcos Distances to Open Clusters. I. Constraints from Multicolor Main-Sequence Fitting

Parallax data from the Hipparcos mission allow the direct distance to open clusters to be compared with the distance inferred from main-sequence (MS) fitting. There are surprising differences between the two distance measurements, indicating either the need for changes in the cluster compositions or reddening, underlying problems with the technique of MS fitting, or systematic errors in the Hipparcos parallaxes at the 1 mas level. We examine the different possibilities, focusing on MS fitting in both metallicity-sensitive B-V and metallicity-insensitive V-I for five well-studied systems (the Hyades, Pleiades, α Per, Praesepe, and Coma Ber). The Hipparcos distances to the Hyades and α Per are within 1 σ of the MS-fitting distance in B-V and V-I, while the Hipparcos distances to Coma Ber and the Pleiades are in disagreement with the MS-fitting distance at more than the 3 σ level. There are two Hipparcos measurements of the distance to Praesepe; one is in good agreement with the MS-fitting distance and the other disagrees at the 2 σ level. The distance estimates from the different colors are in conflict with one another for Coma but in agreement for the Pleiades. Changes in the relative cluster metal abundances, age related effects, helium, and reddening are shown to be unlikely to explain the puzzling behavior of the Pleiades. We present evidence for spatially dependent systematic errors at the 1 mas level in the parallaxes of Pleiades stars. The implications of this result are discussed.

The chromospheric emission-age relation for stars of the lower main sequence and its implications for the star formation rate

An attempt is made to formulate the relationship between age and chromospheric emission (CE) in late-type dwarf stars. Evidence is reviewed that a deterministic relationship of this type actually exists, and that for stars of known age, either a power-law relation or a curve corresponding to a constant star formation rate fits equally well. Further observations should be able to demonstrate either that there is a real excess of young stars near the sun or that the evolution of CE for a low-mass star goes through a slow initial decline, a rapid decline at intermediate ages, and finally a slow decline for old stars like the sun. 100 refs.

Rotation and chromospheric emission among F, G, and K dwarfs of the Pleiades

We report and discuss high-resolution echelle spectra of more than 100 F, G, and K dwarfs in the Pleiades. Comparisons of the profiles of Hα and the Ca II infrared triplet to chromospherically inactive field stars allow us to measure chromospheric activity in these stars, and we have determined v sin i values to a limit of 7 km s −1 . We have combined these new observations with published data and have conducted a census to assess the state of our knowledge of Pleiades solar-type stars. After allowing for a patch of heavy reddening in the southwest part of the cluster, consistent dereddened colors are determined from the available photometry and temperatures are derived. Rotation is fully resolved in the Pleiades for stars more massive than the Sun, but for less massive stars there are still too many upper limits to v sin i to dertermine the underlying, intrinsic distribution of rotation

STELLAR KINEMATIC GROUPS. II. A REEXAMINATION OF THE MEMBERSHIP, ACTIVITY, AND AGE OF THE URSA MAJOR GROUP

Utilizing Hipparcos parallaxes, original radial velocities and recent literature values, new Ca ii H and K emission measurements, literature-based abundance estimates, and updated photometry (including recent resolved measurements of close doubles), we revisit the Ursa Major moving group membership status of some 220 stars to produce a final clean list of nearly 60 assured members, based on kinematic and photometric criteria. Scatter in the velocity dispersions and H-R diagram is correlated with trial activity-based membership assignments, indicating the usefulness of criteria based on photometric and chromospheric emission to examine membership. Closer inspection, however, shows that activity is considerably more robust at excluding membership, failing to do so only for � 15% of objects, perhaps considerably less. Our UMa members demonstrate nonzero vertex deviation in the Bottlinger diagram, behavior seen in older and recent studies of nearby young disk stars and perhaps related to Galactic spiral structure. Comparison of isochrones and our final UMa group members indicates an age of 500 � 100 Myr, some 200 Myr older than the canonically quoted UMa age. Our UMa kinematic=photometric members’ mean chromospheric emission levels, rotational velocities, and scatter therein are indistinguishable from values in the Hyades and smaller than those evinced by members of the younger Pleiades and M34 clusters, suggesting these characteristics decline rapidly with age over 200–500 Myr. None of our UMa members demonstrate inordinately low absolute values of chromospheric emission, but several may show residual fluxes a factor of � 2 below a Hyades-defined lower envelope. If one defines a Maunder-like minimum in a relative sense, then the UMa results may suggest that solar-type stars spend 10% of their entire main-sequence lives in periods of precipitously low activity, which is consistent with estimates from older field stars. As related asides, we note six evolved stars (among our UMa nonmembers) with distinctive kinematics that lie along a 2 Gyr isochrone and appear to be late-type counterparts to disk F stars defining intermediate-age star streams in previous studies, identify a small number of potentially very young but isolated field stars, note that active stars (whether UMa members or not) in our sample lie very close to the solar composition zero-age main sequence, unlike Hipparcos-based positions in the H-R diagram of Pleiades dwarfs, and argue that some extant transformations of activity indices are not adequate for cool dwarfs, for which Ca ii infrared triplet emission seems to be a better proxy than H� -based values for Ca ii H and K indices.

CONFIRMATION OF ERRORS IN HIPPARCOS PARALLAXES FROM HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE FINE GUIDANCE SENSOR ASTROMETRY OF THE PLEIADES

We present absolute trigonometric parallaxes and relative proper motions for three members of the Pleiades, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescopes Fine Guidance Sensor 1r, a white-light interferometer. We estimate spectral types and luminosity classes of the stars comprising the astrometric reference frame from R ? 2000 spectra, VJHK photometry, and reduced proper motions. From these we derive estimates of absolute parallaxes and introduce them into our model as observations with error. We constrain the three cluster members to have a 1 ? dispersion in distance less than 6.4 pc and find an average ?abs = 7.43 ? 0.17 ? 0.20 mas, where the second error is systematic due to member placement within the cluster. This parallax corresponds to a distance of 134.6 ? 3.1 pc or a distance modulus of m - M = 5.65 ? 0.05 for these three Pleiades stars, presuming a central location. This result agrees with three other independent determinations of the Pleiades distance. Presuming that the cluster depth systematic error can be significantly reduced because of the random placement of these many members within the cluster, these four independent measures yield a best-estimate Pleiades distance of ?abs = 7.49 ? 0.07 mas, corresponding to a distance of 133.5 ? 1.2 pc or a distance modulus of m - M = 5.63 ? 0.02. This resolves the dispute between the main-sequence fitting and the Hipparcos distance moduli in favor of main-sequence fitting.

A Multi-color Optical Survey of the Orion Nebula Cluster. II. The H-R Diagram

We present a new analysis of the stellar population of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) based on multi-band optical photometry and spectroscopy.We study the color–color diagrams in BVI, plus a narrowband filter centered at 6200 A, finding evidence that intrinsic color scales valid for main-sequence dwarfs are incompatible with the ONC in the M spectral-type range, while a better agreement is found employing intrinsic colors derived from synthetic photometry, constraining the surface gravity value as predicted by a pre-main-sequence isochrone.We refine these model colors even further, empirically, by comparison with a selected sample of ONC stars with no accretion and no extinction. We consider the stars with known spectral types from the literature, and extend this sample with the addition of 65 newly classified stars from slit spectroscopy and 182 M-type from narrowband photometry; in this way, we isolate a sample of about 1000 stars with known spectral type. We introduce a new method to self-consistently derive the stellar reddening and the optical excess due to accretion from the location of each star in the BVI color–color diagram. This enables us to accurately determine the extinction of the ONC members, together with an estimate of their accretion luminosities. We adopt a lower distance for the Orion Nebula than previously assumed, based on recent parallax measurements. With a careful choice of also the spectral-type–temperature transformation, we produce the new Hertzsprung–Russell diagram of the ONC population, more populated than previous works. With respect to previous works, we find higher luminosity for late-type stars and a slightly lower luminosity for early types. We determine the age distribution of the population, peaking from ~2 to ~3 Myr depending on the model. We study the distribution of the members in the mass–age plane and find that taking into account selection effects due to incompleteness, removes an apparent correlation between mass and age.We derive the initial mass function for low- and intermediate mass members of the ONC, which turns out to be model dependent and shows a turnover at M ≲ 0.2 M_⊙.

Stellar kinematic groups. I: the Ursa Major Group

The Ursa Major Group (UMaG) is studied as a test case for the authenticity of Stellar Kinematic Groups, using Coravel radial velocities, recent compilations of astrometric data, and new spectroscopic observations. Spectroscopic age indicators, particularly indices of the strength of chromospheric emission, are applied to solar-type candidate members of UMaG, and it is shown that stars that meet the spectroscopic criteria also have kinematics that agree better with the space motions of the nucleus of UMaG than does the starting sample as a whole. The primary limitation on the precision of kinematics is now parallaxes instead of radial velocities. These more restrictive kinematic criteria are then applied to other UMaG candidates and a list summarizing membership is presented. UMaG is also examined as a cluster, confirming its traditional age of 0.3 Gyr, and a mean Fe/H of -0.08 +/- 0.09 for those stars most likely to be bona fide members.

The Evolution of the Lithium Abundances of Solar-Type Stars. VIII. M67 (NGC 2682)

We have used the HIRES spectrograph on the Keck 10 m telescope to obtain echelle spectra of 25 solar-type stars in the old open cluster M67 (NGC 2682) and have used these spectra to derive lithium abundances. This cluster, which has approximately the same age and composition as the Sun, shows a pattern of Li depletion different from either the Pleiades or the Hyades. At M 1 M⊙, M67 is more Li depleted than the Hyades. For ~1 M⊙ stars, M67 shows a significant spread in Li, with about two-thirds of the stars being Li-rich and the remainder Li-poor. The data are consistent with M67 having the same initial Li abundance as the initial solar abundance. This is further evidence that Li depletion in solar-type stars occurs during their main-sequence lifetimes, although at a slower rate than pre–main-sequence depletion. These M67 observations also indicate that a 1 M⊙ star at the Suns age can have an Li abundance within a range of ~1 dex, and that the Sun is not necessarily representative of all stars of its mass, age, and composition.

The evolution of angular momentum among zero-age main-sequence solar-type stars

We consider a survey of rotation among F, G, and K dwarfs of the Pleiades in the context of other young clusters (Alpha Persei and the Hyades) and pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars (in Taurus-Auriga and Orion) in order to examine how the angular momentum of a star like the sun evolves during its early life on the main sequence. The rotation of PMS stars can be evolved into distributions like those seen in the young clusters if there is only modest, rotation-independent angular momentum loss prior to the ZAMS. Even then, the ultrafast rotators (UFRs, or ZAMS G and K dwarfs with v sin i equal to or greater than 30 km/s) must owe their extra angular momentum to their conditions of formation and to different angular momentum loss rates above a threshold velocity, for it is unlikely that these stars had angular momentum added as they neared the ZAMS, nor can a spread in ages within a cluster account for the range of rotation seen. Only a fraction of solar-type stars are thus capable of becoming UFRs, and it is not a phase that all stars experience. Simple scaling relations (like the Skumanich relation) applied to the observed surface rotation rates of young solar-type stars cannot reproduce the way in which the Pleiades evolve into the Hyades. We argue that invoking internal differential rotation in these ZAMS stars can explain several aspects of the observations and thus can provide a consistent picture of ZAMS angular momentum evolution.