What effect does the debris disk have on the rotational period of the central star?
If any mass is still accreting onto the star, this will spin up the star and ruin the calibration necessary for gyrochronology. If accretion rate were known, this may help to fix this problem.
Does the star-disk interaction cause a wind which would carry mass (and angular momentum) out of the system and spin-down the central star?
Before actually considering this technique as a good age determinate, I need to find out more information on how these disks affect spin rate.
It is possible that if these debris disks are small enough, the effect would be negligible...
Note that these are debris disks. Hence, no gas and no accretion.
ReplyDeleteDisk material is being cleared out (radiation pressure, solar wind, Poynting-Robertson drag), but I don't believe the (debris) disk+star is well coupled.
However, it may still be worthwhile to explore the average vsini of disk vs non-disk systems, if it hasn't been done before.
Is it possible that collisions between plantesimals in the debris disk would force some accretion? Or is that not enough of an effect to worry about?
ReplyDeleteWell, some material will fall into the star by PR drag anyways. But I think that's negligible in terms of changing the rotation (most disks just have of order ~Moon mass in dust). I would think you need substantial (gas) accretion to change things.
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense...thanks!
ReplyDelete