Rotation in the Orion Nebula Cluster

Eighteen fields in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) have been monitored for one or more observing seasons from 1990-99 with a 0.6-m telescope at Wesleyan University. Photometric data were obtained in Cousins I on 25-40 nights per season. Results from the first 3 years of monitoring were analyzed by Choi & Herbst (1996; CH). Here we provide an update based on 6 more years of observation and the extensive optical and IR study of the ONC by Hillenbrand (1997) and Hillenbrand et al. (1998). Rotation periods are now available for 134 ONC members. Of these, 67 were detected at multiple epochs with identical periods by us and 15 more were confirmed by Stassun et al. (1999) in their study of Ori OBIc/d. The bimodal period distribution for the ONC is confirmed, but we also find a clear dependence of rotation period on mass. This can be understood as an effect of deuterium burning, which temporarily slows the contraction and thus spin-up of stars with M <0.25 solar masses and ages of ~1 My. Stars with M <0.25 solar masses have not had time to bridge the gap in the period distribution at ~4 days. Excess H-K and I-K emission, as well as CaII infrared triplet equivalent widths (Hillenbrand et al. 1998), show weak but significant correlations with rotation period among stars with M >0.25 solar masses. Our results provide new observational support for the importance of disks in the early rotational evolution of low mass stars. [abridged]Comment: 18 pages of text, 17 figures, and 4 tables; accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa