Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 276
This version created on 05 October 2006

Rotation in Young Stars


Luisa Rebull, Spitzer Science Center
John Stauffer, Spitzer Science Center
Steve Strom, NOAO
Sidney Wolff, NOAO

The smallest molecular cores observed to date have at least ~6 orders
of magnitude greater angular momentum per unit mass than the Sun,
sugggesting that they would greatly exceed the breakup velocity if no
angular momentum was lost during the star formation process.
Therefore, an angular momentum regulation mechanism must be at work in
the pre-main-sequence phase, and disks are often invoked as the
solution to the angular momentum problem.  Thanks to large-format
CCDs, more than 1000  periods for young stars are now known (with more
being presented at this conference), and with the Spitzer Space
Telescope, we have the ability to get reliable circumstellar disk
indicators for many 1000s of stars at once.  Now, for the first time,
we may have enough stars to start to constrain the angular momentum
loss mechanism in a meaningful fashion.  In this talk, I will review
the observations made to date of rotation in pre-main-sequence
low-mass stars.

----------------------------------