The rotational evolution of Sun-like stars and the influence of low-mass binary companions

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Leonardo Augusto Gonçalves dos
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Binary stars; Estrelas; Estrelas binárias; Gêmeas solares; Rotação estelar; Sol; Solar twins; Stars; Stellar rotation; Sun
• Link de acesso: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/14/14131/tde-22052018-174015/

The Solar Twin Planet Search program is an unprecedented eort that aimed to procure extrasolar planets in more than 70 stars extremely similar to the Sun. In the course of this program, hundreds of high-quality optical spectra were obtained for these stars using the HARPS spectrograph, which is fed by the ESO La Silla 3.6 m telescope. Beyond the search for exoplanets, the data are invaluable to study the physical properties of Sun-like stars. Particularly in this dissertation, we are interested in verifying if the Sun possesses a regular rotation for its age among stars that are strictly similar to it, how the rotation of solar twins evolve with age and if the rotation of Sun-like stars is influenced by the presence of stellar mass companions. Previous conclusions on the regularity of the Suns rotation have been conflicting, and this is the first time such a large sample of solar twins with high quality spectroscopic data is used to clarify this puzzle. Our results suggest that the Sun is indeed a regular rotator for its age, which favors the use of the solar rotation to calibrate gyrochronology -- the estimation of stellar ages from their rotation. However, these results also imply a rotational evolution process that saturates after the solar age, constituting a departure from the widely used Skumanich relation and posing a challenge for gyrochronology. We securely identified 18 binary or multiple systems in the solar twin sample, of which only three display enhanced rotation for their ages. I estimated the orbital parameters of the binaries from their radial velocity variations, and the results show that their spectroscopic companions lie at orbital periods varying from a few to several years. I conclude that the presence of red or brown dwarf companions at moderate to long orbital periods do not influence the evolution of rotation in these systems, and therefore the main stars should evolve as single in this regard. The peculiarities in HIP 19911, HIP 67620 and HIP 103983 can be fully explained by spectral contamination from their companions.