Does rotation of B stars depend on metallicity? Preliminary results from GIRAFFE spectra

Abstract

We show the v sin i distribution of main sequence B stars in sites of various metallicities, in the absolute magnitude range -3.34 < Mv < -2.17. These include Galactic stars in the field measured by [1], members of the h & χ Per open clusters measured by [6], and five fields in the SMC and LMC measured at ESO Paranal with the FLAMES-GIRAFFE spectrograph, within the Geneva-Lausanne guaranteed time. Following the suggestion by [5], we do find a higher rate of rapid rotators in the Magellanic Clouds than in the Galaxy, but the v sin i distribution is the same in the LMC and in the SMC in spite of their very different metallicities. © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.