Rotation periods for NGC 3532

The colour-period diagram constructed from this rich data set shows a well-populated and structured slow rotator sequence, and a fast rotator sequence evolved beyond zero-age main sequence age whose stars are in transition from fast to slow rotation. The slow rotator sequence itself is split into slightly slower and faster rotators, a feature we trace to photometric binary status. We also identify an extended slow rotator sequence extending to P~32d, apparently the analogue of the one we previously identified in NGC 2516.

We compare our period distribution to rotational isochrones in colour-period space and find that all considered models have certain shortcomings. Using more detailed spin-down models, we evolve the rotation periods of the younger NGC 2516 forward in time and find that the spindown of the models is too aggressive with respect to the slow rotators. In contrast, stars on the evolved fast rotator sequence are not spun down strongly enough by these models.

Our observations suggest a shorter crossing time for the rotational gap, one we estimate to be ~80Myr for early-K dwarfs.