Bibcode
Li, Chengyuan; Sun, Weijia; de Grijs, Richard; Deng, Licai; Wang, Kun; Cordoni, Giacomo; Milone, Antonino P.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 876, Issue 1, article id. 65, 11 pp. (2019).
Advertised on:
5
2019
Journal
Citations
39
Refereed citations
36
Description
Using Gaia Data Release 2 photometry, we report the detection of
extended main-sequence turnoff (eMSTO) regions in the
color–magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of the ∼14 Myr old double
clusters h and χ Persei (NGC 869 and NGC 884). We find that stars
with masses below ∼1.3 M ⊙ in both h and χ Persei
populate narrow main sequences (MSs), while more massive stars define
the eMSTO, closely mimicking observations of young Galactic and
Magellanic Cloud clusters (with ages older than ∼30 Myr). Previous
studies based on clusters older than ∼30 Myr found that rapidly
rotating MS stars are redder than slow rotators of similar luminosity,
suggesting that stellar rotation may be the main driver of the eMSTO. By
combining photometry and projected rotational velocities from the
literature of stars in h and χ Persei, we find no obvious relation
between the rotational velocities and colors of non-emission-line eMSTO
stars, in contrast with what is observed in older clusters. Similar to
what is observed in Magellanic Cloud clusters, most of the extremely
rapidly rotating stars, identified by their strong Hα emission
lines, are located in the red part of the eMSTOs. This indicates that
stellar rotation plays a role in the color and magnitude distribution of
MSTO stars. By comparing the observations with simulated CMDs, we find
that a simple population composed of coeval stars that span a wide range
of rotation rates is unable to reproduce the color spread of the
cluster’s MSs. We suggest that variable stars, binary
interactions, and stellar rotation affect the eMSTO morphology of these
very young clusters.