We present new models for the rotational evolution of solar-like stars
between 1 Myr and 10 Gyr with the aim to reproduce the distributions of
rotational periods observed for star forming regions and young open clusters
within this age range. The models include a new wind braking law based on
recent numerical simulations of magnetized stellar winds and specific dynamo
and mass-loss prescriptions are adopted to tie angular momentum loss to angular
velocity. The model additionally assume constant angular velocity during the
disk accretion phase and allow for decoupling between the radiative core and
the convective envelope as soon as the former develops. We have developed
rotational evolution models for slow, median and fast rotators with initial
periods of 10, 7, and 1.4d, respectively. The models reproduce reasonably well
the rotational behaviour of solar-type stars between 1 Myr and 4.5 Gyr,
including PMS to ZAMS spin up, prompt ZAMS spin down, and the early-MS
convergence of surface rotation rates. We find the model parameters accounting
for the slow and median rotators are very similar to each other, with a disk
lifetime of 5 Myr and a core-envelope coupling timescale of 28-30 Myr. In
contrast, fast rotators have both shorter disk lifetime (2.5 Myr) and
core-envelope coupling timescale (12 Myr). We emphasize that these results are
highly dependent on the adopted braking law. We also report a tentative
correlation between initial rotational period and disk lifetime, which suggests
that protostellar spin-down by massive disks in the embedded phase is at the
origin of the initial dispersion of rotation rates in young stars. We conclude
that this class of semi-empirical models successfully grasp the main trends of
the rotational behaviour of solar-type stars as they evolve and make specific
predictions that may serve as a guide for further development.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 4 table, accepted for publication by A&A. New
version that include the linguistic correctio