Activity-rotation relationship in stars

We have selected a sample of 259 dwarfs in the B-V range 0.5-2.0, including 110 field stars and 149 members of the Pleiades, Hyades, {alpha} Persei, IC 2602 and IC 2391 open clusters. All the stars have been observed with ROSAT, and most of them have photometrically-measured rotation periods available.

Our results confirm that two emission regimes exist, one in which the rotation period is a good predictor of the total X-ray luminosity, and the other in which a constant saturated X-ray to bolometric luminosity ratio is attained; we present a quantitative estimate of the critical rotation periods below which stars of different masses (or spectral types) enter the saturated regime.