Rotational Velocities and Radii of Pre-Main-Sequence Stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster

Abstract

We have obtained high-dispersion spectra for 256 pre-main-sequence stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster in order to measure their projected rotational velocities and study the rotational evolution and physical properties of young, low-mass stars. Half the stars were chosen because they had known photometric periods and half were selected as a control sample of similar objects without known periods. More than 90% of the spectra yielded vsin(i) measurements, although one-third are upper limits. We find strong evidence confirming the assumption that the periodic light variations of T Tauri stars are caused by rotation of surface spots. We find no significant difference between the vsin(i) distributions of the periodic and control samples, indicating that there is no strong bias in studying the rotation of young stars using periodic variables. Likewise, the classical and weak T Tauri stars exhibit vsin(i) distributions that are statistically the same. For stars with known period and vsin(i), the mean value of sin(i) is lower than expected for a random distribution of rotation axes. This could be due to errors in the quantities that contribute to the sin(i) calculation or to a real physical effect. We find that mean sin(i) has the expected value if we increase the stars' Teff values by 400-600 K. Finally, we have calculated minimum radii for stars with vsin(i) and period, and average radii for stars grouped by location in the H-R diagram. We find evidence at the 3-sigma level that the radii of stars on similar mass tracks are decreasing as the stars move closer to the ZAMS. [abridged]