Weakened magnetic braking supported by asteroseismic rotation rates of Kepler dwarfs

Studies using asteroseismic ages and rotation rates from star-spot rotation have indicated that standard age–rotation relations may break down roughly half way through the main sequence lifetime, a phenomenon referred to as weakened magnetic braking. Although rotation rates from spots can be difficult to determine for older, less active stars, rotational splitting of asteroseismic oscillation frequencies can provide rotation rates for both active and quiescent stars, and so can confirm whether this effect really takes place on the main sequence. We obtained asteroseismic rotation rates of 91 main sequence stars showing high signal-to-noise modes of oscillation. Using these new rotation rates, along with effective temperatures, metallicities and seismic masses and ages, we built a hierarchical Bayesian mixture model to determine whether the ensemble more closely agreed with a standard rotational evolution scenario, or one where weakened magnetic braking takes place. The weakened magnetic braking scenario was found to be 98.4% more likely for our stellar ensemble, adding to the growing body of evidence for this stage of stellar rotational evolution. This work presents a large catalogue of seismic rotation rates for stars on the main sequence, which opens up possibilities for more detailed ensemble analysis of rotational evolution with Kepler.