Nearly uniform internal rotation of solar-like main-sequence stars revealed by space-based asteroseismology and spectroscopic measurements

Abstract

The rotation rates in the deep interior and at the surface of 22 main-sequence stars with masses between 1.0 and 1.6 M⊙ are constrained by combining asteroseismological analysis with spectroscopic measurements. The asteroseismic data of each star are taken by the Kepler or CoRoT space mission. It is found that the difference between the surface rotation rate and the average rotation rate (excluding the convective core) of most of stars is small enough to suggest that an efficient process of angular momentum transport operates during and/or before the main-sequence stage of stars. If each of the surface convective zone and the underlying radiative zone, for individual stars, is assumed to rotate uniformly, the difference in the rotation rate between the two zones turns out to be no more than a factor of 2 in most of the stars independently of their ages.