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The application of clustering algorithms to the Gaia astrometric catalog has revolutionized our census of stellar populations in the Milky Way, including the discovery of many new, dispersed structures. We focus on one such structure, Theia 456 (COIN-Gaia-13), a loosely bound collection of ~320 stars spanning ~120 pc that has previously been shown to exhibit kinematic, chemical, and gyrochronal coherency, indicating a common origin. We obtain follow-up radial velocities and supplement these with Gaia astrometry to perform an in-depth dynamical analysis of Theia 456. By integrating stellar orbits through a Milky Way potential, we find the currently dispersed structure coalesced into a small cluster in the past. Via Bayesian modeling, we derive a kinematic age of 245 +/- 3 Myr (statistical), a half-mass radius of 9 +/- 2 pc, and an initial one-dimensional velocity dispersion of 0.14 +/- 0.02 km/s. Our results are entirely independent of model isochrones, details of stellar evolution, and internal cluster dynamics, and the statistical precision in our age derivation rivals that of the most precise age-dating techniques known today, though our imperfect knowledge of the Milky Way potential and simple spherical model for Theia 456 at birth add additional uncertainties. Using posterior predictive checking, we confirm these results are robust under reasonable variations to the Milky Way potential. Such low density structures that are disrupted by the Galactic tides before virializing may be ubiquitous, signifying that Theia 456 is a valuable benchmark for studying the dynamical history of stellar populations in the Milky Way., Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables. Accepted in AAS journals. Comments welcome

Recent space-based missions have ushered in a new era of observational astronomy, where high-cadence photometric light curves for thousands to millions of stars in the solar neighborhood can be used to test and apply stellar age-dating methods, including gyrochronology. Combined with precise kinematics, these data allow for powerful new insights into our understanding of the Milky Way's dynamical history. Using TESS data, we build a series of rotation period measurement and confirmation pipelines and test them on 1,560 stars across five benchmark samples: the Pleiades, Pisces--Eridanus, Praesepe, the Hyades, and field stars from the MEarth Project. Our pipelines' recovery rates across these groups are on average 89\%. We then apply these pipelines to 4,085 likely single stars with TESS light curves in two interesting regions of Galactic action space. We identify 141 unique, rapidly rotating stars in highly eccentric orbits in the disk, some of which appear as rotationally young as the 120-Myr-old Pleiades. Pending spectroscopic analysis to confirm their youth, this indicates these stars were subject to fast-acting dynamical phenomena, the origin of which will be investigated in later papers in this series., Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, 2 appendices. Accepted in ApJ

The demographics of young exoplanets can shed light onto their formation and evolution processes. Exoplanet properties are derived from the properties of their host stars. As such, it is important to accurately characterize the host stars since any systematic biases in their derivation can negatively impact the derivation of planetary properties. Here, we present a uniform catalog of photometrically-derived stellar effective temperatures, luminosities, radii, and masses for 4,865 young (<1 Gyr) stars in 31 nearby clusters and moving groups within 200 pc. We compared our photometrically-derived properties to a subset of those derived from spectra, and found them to be in good agreement. We also investigated the effect of stellar properties on the detection efficiency of transiting short-period young planets with TESS as calculated in Fernandes et al. 2022, and found an overall increase in the detection efficiency when the new photometrically derived properties were taken into account. Most notably, there is a 1.5 times increase in the detection efficiencies for sub-Neptunes/Neptunes (1.8-6 Re) implying that, for our sample of young stars, better characterization of host star properties can lead to the recovery of more small transiting planets. Our homogeneously derived catalog of updated stellar properties, along with a larger unbiased stellar sample and more detections of young planets, will be a crucial input to the accurate estimation of the occurrence rates of young short-period planets., Comment: 16 pages, 5 Figures, 3 Tables. Revised and resubmitted to AJ after a favorable referee report. Co-First Authors

The Tucana-Horologium Association (Tuc-Hor) is a 40 Myr old moving group in the southern sky. In this work, we measure the rotation periods of 313 Tuc-Hor objects with TESS light curves derived from TESS full frame images and membership lists driven by Gaia EDR3 kinematics and known youth indicators. We recover a period for 81.4% of the sample and report 255 rotaion periods for Tuc-Hor objects. From these objects we identify 11 candidate binaries based on multiple periodic signals or outlier Gaia DR2 and EDR3 re-normalised unit weight error (RUWE) values. We also identify three new complex rotators (rapidly rotating M dwarf objects with intricate light curve morphology) within our sample. Along with the six previously known complex rotators that belong to Tuc-Hor, we compare their light curve morphology between TESS Cycle 1 and Cycle 3 and find they change substantially. Furthermore, we provide context for the entire Tuc-Hor rotation sample by describing the rotation period distributions alongside other youth indicators such as H{\alpha} and Li equivalent width, as well as near ultra-violet and X ray flux. We find that measuring rotation periods with TESS to be a fast and effective means to confirm members in young moving groups., Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures

We report the discovery of three transiting low-mass companions to aged stars: a brown dwarf (TOI-2336b) and two objects near the hydrogen burning mass limit (TOI-1608b and TOI-2521b). These three systems were first identified using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TOI-2336b has a radius of $1.05\pm 0.04\ R_J$, a mass of $69.9\pm 2.3\ M_J$ and an orbital period of 7.71 days. TOI-1608b has a radius of $1.21\pm 0.06\ R_J$, a mass of $90.7\pm 3.7\ M_J$ and an orbital period of 2.47 days. TOI-2521b has a radius of $1.01\pm 0.04\ R_J$, a mass of $77.5\pm 3.3\ M_J$ and an orbital period of 5.56 days. We found all these low-mass companions are inflated. We fitted a relation between radius, mass and incident flux using the sample of known transiting brown dwarfs and low-mass M dwarfs. We found a positive correlation between the flux and the radius for brown dwarfs and for low-mass stars that is weaker than the correlation observed for giant planets. We also found that TOI-1608 and TOI-2521 are very likely to be spin-orbit synchronized, leading to the unusually rapid rotation of the primary stars considering their evolutionary stages. Our estimates indicate that both systems have much shorter spin-orbit synchronization timescales compared to their ages. These systems provide valuable insights into the evolution of stellar systems with brown dwarf and low-mass stellar companions influenced by tidal effects., Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures; Published in MNRAS

The intermediate period gap, discovered by Kepler, is an observed dearth of stellar rotation periods in the temperature-period diagram at $\sim$ 20 days for G dwarfs and up to $\sim$ 30 days for early-M dwarfs. However, because Kepler mainly targeted solar-like stars, there is a lack of measured periods for M dwarfs, especially those at the fully convective limit. Therefore it is unclear if the intermediate period gap exists for mid- to late-M dwarfs. Here, we present a period catalog containing 40,553 rotation periods (9,535 periods $>$ 10 days), measured using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). To measure these periods, we developed a simple pipeline that improves directly on the ZTF archival light curves and reduces the photometric scatter by 26%, on average. This new catalog spans a range of stellar temperatures that connect samples from Kepler with MEarth, a ground-based time domain survey of bright M-dwarfs, and reveals that the intermediate period gap closes at the theoretically predicted location of the fully convective boundary ($G_{\rm BP} - G_{\rm RP} \sim 2.45$ mag). This result supports the hypothesis that the gap is caused by core-envelope interactions. Using gyro-kinematic ages, we also find a potential rapid spin-down of stars across this period gap.

The public, all-sky surveys Gaia and TESS provide the ability to identify new young associations and determine their ages. These associations enable study of planetary evolution by providing new opportunities to discover young exoplanets. A young association was recently identified by Tang et al. and F{\"u}rnkranz et al. using astrometry from Gaia (called "Group-X" by the former). In this work, we investigate the age and membership of this association; and we validate the exoplanet TOI 2048 b, which was identified to transit a young, late G dwarf in Group-X using photometry from TESS. We first identified new candidate members of Group-X using Gaia EDR3 data. To infer the age of the association, we measured rotation periods for candidate members using TESS data. The clear color--period sequence indicates that the association is the same age as the $300\pm50$ Myr-old NGC 3532. We obtained optical spectra for candidate members that show lithium absorption consistent with this young age. Further, we serendipitously identify a new, small association nearby Group-X, which we call MELANGE-2. Lastly, we statistically validate TOI 2048 b, which is $2.6\pm0.2$ \rearth\ radius planet on a 13.8-day orbit around its 300 Myr-old host star., Comment: Revised to correct error in reported planet radius (original: 2.1 Earth radii, corrected: 2.6 Earth radii) and units for planetary radius ratio entries in Table 8. All data tables available open-access with the AJ article

The evolution of magnetism in late-type dwarfs remains murky, as we can only weakly predict levels of activity for M dwarfs of a given mass and age. We report results from our spectroscopic survey of M dwarfs in the Southern Continuous Viewing Zone (CVZ) of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). As the TESS CVZs overlap with those of the James Webb Space Telescope, our targets constitute a legacy sample for studies of nearby M dwarfs. For 122 stars, we obtained at least one $R\approx 2000$ optical spectrum with which we measure chromospheric $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ emission, a proxy for magnetic field strength. The fraction of active stars is consistent with what is expected for field M dwarfs; as in previous studies, we find that late-type M dwarfs remain active for longer than their early type counterparts. While the TESS light curves for $\approx$20% of our targets show modulations consistent with rotation, TESS systematics are not well enough understood for confident measurements of rotation periods ($P_{\mathrm{rot}}$) longer than half the length of an observing sector. We report periods for 12 stars for which we measure $P_{\mathrm{rot}} {\lower0.8ex\hbox{$\buildrel <\over\sim$}}$ 15 d or find confirmation for the TESS-derived $P_{\mathrm{rot}}$ in the literature. Our sample of 21 $P_{\mathrm{rot}}$, which includes periods from the literature, is consistent with our targets being spun-down field stars. Finally, we examine the $\mathrm{H}\alpha$-to-bolometric luminosity distribution for our sample. Two stars are rotating fast enough to be magnetically saturated, but are not, hinting at the possibility that fast rotators may appear inactive in $\mathrm{H}\alpha$., Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ, 17 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables

We combine stellar surface rotation periods determined from NASA's Kepler mission with spectroscopic temperatures to demonstrate the existence of pileups at the long-period and short-period edges of the temperature-period distribution for main-sequence stars with temperatures exceeding $\sim 5500$K. The long-period pileup is well-described by a curve of constant Rossby number, with a critical value of $\mathrm{Ro_{crit}} \lesssim 2$. The long-period pileup was predicted by van Saders et al. (2019) as a consequence of weakened magnetic braking, in which wind-driven angular momentum losses cease once stars reach a critical Rossby number. Stars in the long-period pileup are found to have a wide range of ages ($\sim 2-6$Gyr), meaning that, along the pileup, rotation period is strongly predictive of a star's surface temperature but weakly predictive of its age. The short-period pileup, which is also well-described by a curve of constant Rossby number, is not a prediction of the weakened magnetic braking hypothesis but may instead be related to a phase of slowed surface spin-down due to core-envelope coupling. The same mechanism was proposed by Curtis et al. (2020) to explain the overlapping rotation sequences of low-mass members of differently aged open clusters. The relative dearth of stars with intermediate rotation periods between the short- and long-period pileups is also well-described by a curve of constant Rossby number, which aligns with the period gap initially discovered by McQuillan et al. (2013a) in M-type stars. These observations provide further support for the hypothesis that the period gap is due to stellar astrophysics, rather than a non-uniform star-formation history in the Kepler field., Comment: Accepted to ApJ. 29 pages, 21 figures. The data and code required to reproduce this work is available at http://github.com/trevordavid/rossby-ridge

Main-sequence stars with convective envelopes often appear larger and cooler than predicted by standard models of stellar evolution for their measured masses. This is believed to be caused by stellar activity. In a recent study, accurate measurements have been published for the K-type components of the 1.62 day detached eclipsing binary EPIC 219511354, showing the radii and temperatures for both stars to be affected by these discrepancies. This is a rare example of a system in which the age and chemical composition are known, by virtue of being a member of the well-studied open cluster Ruprecht 147 (age $\sim$ 3 Gyr, [Fe/H] = +0.10). Here we report a detailed study of this system with non-standard models incorporating magnetic inhibition of convection. We show that these calculations are able to reproduce the observations largely within their uncertainties, providing robust estimates of the strength of the magnetic fields on both stars: $1600 \pm 130$ G and $1830 \pm 150$ G for the primary and secondary, respectively. Empirical estimates of the magnetic field strengths based on the measured X-ray luminosity of the system are roughly consistent with these predictions, supporting this mechanism as a possible explanation for the radius and temperature discrepancies., Comment: 7 pages in emulateapj format including figures and tables. Accepted for publication in Galaxies, special issue 'What's New under the Binary Suns', eds. R. E. Wilson and W. Van Hamme

Our view of the variety of stellar structures pervading the local Milky Way has been transformed by the application of clustering algorithms to the Gaia catalog. In particular, several stellar streams have been recently discovered that are comprised of hundreds to thousands of stars and span several hundred parsecs. We analyze one such structure, Theia 456, a low-density stellar stream extending nearly 200 pc and 20$^{\circ}$ across the sky. By supplementing Gaia astrometric data with spectroscopic metallicities from LAMOST and photometric rotation periods from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), we establish Theia 456's radial velocity coherence, and we find strong evidence that members of Theia 456 have a common age ($\simeq$175 Myr), common dynamical origin, and formed from chemically homogeneous pre-stellar material ([Fe/H] = $-$0.07 dex). Unlike well-known stellar streams in the Milky Way, which are in its halo, Theia 456 is firmly part of the thin disk. If our conclusions about Theia 456 can be applied to even a small fraction of the remaining $\simeq$8300 independent structures in the Theia catalog, such low-density stellar streams may be ubiquitous. We comment on the implications this has for the nature of star-formation throughout the Galaxy., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in AJ

We report follow-up spectroscopic observations of the 1.62 day, K-type, detached, active, near-circular, double-lined eclipsing binary EPIC 219511354 in the open cluster Ruprecht 147, identified previously on the basis of photometric observations from the Kepler/K2 mission. This is the fourth eclipsing system analyzed in this cluster. A combined analysis of the light curve and radial velocities yields accurate masses of M(Aa) = 0.912 +/- 0.013 MSun and M(Ab) = 0.822 +/- 0.010 MSun for the primary (star Aa) and secondary (Ab), along with radii of R(Aa) = 0.920 +/- 0.016 RSun and R(Ab) = 0.851 +/- 0.016 RSun, and effective temperatures of 5035 +/- 150 and 4690 +/- 130 K, respectively. Comparison with current models of stellar evolution for the known age and metallicity of the cluster reveals that both radii are larger (by 10--14%) and both temperatures cooler (by $\sim$6%) than theoretically predicted, as is often seen in M dwarfs. This is likely caused by the significant stellar activity in the system, manifested here by 6% peak-to-peak out-of-eclipse variability, a filled-in H$\alpha$ line, and its detection as an X-ray source. We also find EPIC 219511354 to be a hierarchical triple system, with a low-mass tertiary in an eccentric 220 day orbit., Comment: 11 pages in emulateapj format, including figures and tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

The majority of observed pixels on the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) are delivered in the form of full frame images (FFI). However, the FFIs contain systematic effects such as pointing jitter and scattered light from the Earth and Moon that must be removed before downstream analysis. We present unpopular, an open-source Python package to de-trend TESS FFI light curves based on the causal pixel model method. Under the assumption that shared flux variations across multiple distant pixels are likely to be systematics, unpopular removes these common (i.e., popular) trends by modeling the systematics in a given pixel's light curve as a linear combination of light curves from many other distant pixels. To prevent overfitting we employ ridge regression and a train-and-test framework where the data points being de-trended are separated from those used to obtain the model coefficients. We also allow for simultaneous fitting with a polynomial model to capture any long-term astrophysical trends. We validate our method by de-trending different sources (e.g., supernova, tidal disruption event, exoplanet-hosting star, fast rotating star) and comparing our light curves to those obtained by other pipelines when appropriate. We also show that unpopular is able to preserve sector-length astrophysical signals, allowing for the extraction of multi-sector light curves from the FFI data. The unpopular source code and tutorials are freely available online., Comment: 35 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal

We use three campaigns of K2 observations to complete the census of rotation in low-mass members of the benchmark, $\approx$670-Myr-old open cluster Praesepe. We measure new rotation periods (\prot) for 220 $\lesssim$1.3~\Msun\ Praesepe members and recover periods for $97\%$ (793/812) of the stars with a \prot\ in the literature. Of the 19 stars for which we do not recover a \prot, 17 were not observed by K2. As K2's three Praesepe campaigns took place over the course of three years, we test the stability of our measured \prot\ for stars observed in more than one campaign. We measure \prot\ consistent to within $10\%$ for $>95\%$ of the 331 likely single stars with $\geq$2 high-quality observations; the median difference in \prot\ is $0.3\%$, with a standard deviation of $2\%$. Nearly all of the exceptions are stars with discrepant \prot\ measurements in Campaign 18, K2's last, which was significantly shorter than the earlier two ($\approx$50~d rather than $\approx$75~d). This suggests that, despite the evident morphological evolution we observe in the light curves of $38\%$ of the stars, \prot\ measurements for low-mass stars in Praesepe are stable on timescales of several years. A \prot\ can therefore be taken to be representative even if measured only once., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables. Accepted in ApJ

Coma Berenices (Coma Ber), an open cluster about the same age as Praesepe and the Hyades (700-800 Myr) is, despite being only 85 pc away, less well studied than its famous cousins. This is due principally to its sparseness and low proper motion, which together made Coma Ber's membership challenging to establish pre-Gaia. We have curated a new list of its members based on Gaia DR2 astrometry, derived its metallicity and interstellar reddening using LAMOST data, and inferred the cluster's age by fitting PARSEC isochrones to its color$-$magnitude diagram. We then measured rotation periods for Coma Ber's low-mass members using TESS and ZTF photometry. Our isochrone fitting and the TESS- and ZTF-derived rotation periods confirm that Coma Ber is coeval with the Hyades and Praesepe. This work is the first step toward re-establishing Coma Ber as another valuable benchmark cluster for age$-$rotation$-$activity studies.

In this work we examine M dwarf rotation rates at a range of ages to establish benchmarks for Mdwarf gyrochronology. This work includes a sample of 713 spectroscopically-classified M0-M8 dwarfs with new rotation rates measured from K2 light curves. We analyzed data and recover rotation rates for 179 of these objects. We add these to rotation rates for members of clusters with known ages (5-700 Myr), as well as objects assumed to have field ages ($>$1 Gyr). We use Gaia DR2 parallax and (G-GRP) photometry to create color-magnitude diagrams to compare objects across samples. We use color-period plots to analyze the period distributions across age, as well as incorporate Halpha equivalent width and tangential velocity where possible to further comment on age dependence. We find that the age of transition from rapid to slow rotation in clusters, which we define as an elbow in the period-color plots, depends on spectral type. Later spectral types transition at older ages: M4 for Praesepe at 700 Myr, one of the oldest clusters for which M dwarf rotation rates have been measured. The transition from active to inactive Halpha equivalent width also occurs at this elbow, as objects transition from rapid rotation to the slowly rotating sequence. Redder or smaller stars remain active at older ages. Finally, using Gaia kinematics we find evidence for rotation stalling for late Ms in the field sample, suggesting the transition happens much later for mid to late-type M dwarfs., Comment: 30 pages, 20 figures

Young exoplanets can offer insight into the evolution of planetary atmospheres, compositions, and architectures. We present the discovery of the young planetary system TOI 451 (TIC 257605131, Gaia DR2 4844691297067063424). TOI 451 is a member of the 120-Myr-old Pisces--Eridanus stream (Psc--Eri). We confirm membership in the stream with its kinematics, its lithium abundance, and the rotation and UV excesses of both TOI 451 and its wide binary companion, TOI 451 B (itself likely an M dwarf binary). We identified three candidate planets transiting in the TESS data and followed up the signals with photometry from Spitzer and ground-based telescopes. The system comprises three validated planets at periods of 1.9, 9.2 and 16 days, with radii of 1.9, 3.1, and 4.1 Earth radii, respectively. The host star is near-solar mass with V=11.0 and H=9.3 and displays an infrared excess indicative of a debris disk. The planets offer excellent prospects for transmission spectroscopy with HST and JWST, providing the opportunity to study planetary atmospheres that may still be in the process of evolving., Comment: 20 pages, appendix on UV excess

Estimating stellar ages is important for advancing our understanding of stellar and exoplanet evolution and investigating the history of the Milky Way. However, ages for low-mass stars are hard to infer as they evolve slowly on the main sequence. In addition, empirical dating methods are difficult to calibrate for low-mass stars as they are faint. In this work, we calculate ages for Kepler F, G, and crucially K and M dwarfs, using their rotation and kinematic properties. We apply the simple assumption that the velocity dispersion of stars increases over time and adopt an age--velocity--dispersion relation (AVR) to estimate average stellar ages for groupings of coeval stars. We calculate the vertical velocity dispersion of stars in bins of absolute magnitude, temperature, rotation period, and Rossby number and then convert velocity dispersion to kinematic age via an AVR. Using this method, we estimate gyro-kinematic ages for 29,949 Kepler stars with measured rotation periods. We are able to estimate ages for clusters and asteroseismic stars with an RMS of 1.22 Gyr and 0.26 Gyr respectively. With our Astraea machine learning algorithm, which predicts rotation periods, we suggest a new selection criterion (a weight of 0.15) to increase the size of the McQuillian et al. (2014) catalog of Kepler rotation periods by up to 25%. Using predicted rotation periods, we estimated gyro-kinematic ages for stars without measured rotation periods and found promising results by comparing 12 detailed age--element abundance trends with literature values.

The radius valley, a bifurcation in the size distribution of small, close-in exoplanets, is hypothesized to be a signature of planetary atmospheric loss. Such an evolutionary phenomenon should depend on the age of the star-planet system. In this work, we study the temporal evolution of the radius valley using two independent determinations of host star ages among the California-Kepler Survey (CKS) sample. We find evidence for a wide and nearly empty void of planets in the period-radius diagram at the youngest system ages ($\lesssim$2-3 Gyr) represented in the CKS sample. We show that the orbital period dependence of the radius valley among the younger CKS planets is consistent with that found among those planets with asteroseismically determined host star radii. Relative to previous studies of preferentially older planets, the radius valley determined among the younger planetary sample is shifted to smaller radii. This result is compatible with an atmospheric loss timescale on the order of gigayears for progenitors of the largest observed super-Earths. In support of this interpretation, we show that the planet sizes which appear to be unrepresented at ages $\lesssim$2-3 Gyr are likely to correspond to planets with rocky compositions. Our results suggest the size distribution of close-in exoplanets, and the precise location of the radius valley, evolves over gigayears., Comment: Accepted to The Astronomical Journal. 46 pages, 27 figures

The rotation periods of planet-hosting stars can be used for modeling and mitigating the impact of magnetic activity in radial velocity measurements and can help constrain the high-energy flux environment and space weather of planetary systems. Millions of stars and thousands of planet hosts are observed with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). However, most will only be observed for 27 contiguous days in a year, making it difficult to measure rotation periods with traditional methods. This is especially problematic for field M dwarfs, which are ideal candidates for exoplanet searches, but which tend to have periods in excess of the 27-day observing baseline. We present a new tool, Astraea, for predicting long rotation periods from short-duration light curves combined with stellar parameters from Gaia DR2. Using Astraea, we can predict the rotation periods from Kepler 4-year light curves with 13% uncertainty overall (and a 9% uncertainty for periods > 30 days). By training on 27-day Kepler light curve segments, Astraea can predict rotation periods up to 150 days with 9% uncertainty (5% for periods > 30 days). After training this tool on these 27-day Kepler light curve segments, we applied \texttt{Astraea} to real TESS data. For the 195 stars that were observed by both Kepler and TESS, we were able to predict the rotation periods with 55% uncertainty despite the wild differences in systematics.

The rotational evolution of cool dwarfs is poorly constrained after around 1-2 Gyr due to a lack of precise ages and rotation periods for old main-sequence stars. In this work we use velocity dispersion as an age proxy to reveal the temperature-dependent rotational evolution of low-mass Kepler dwarfs, and demonstrate that kinematic ages could be a useful tool for calibrating gyrochronology in the future. We find that a linear gyrochronology model, calibrated to fit the period-Teff relationship of the Praesepe cluster, does not apply to stars older than around 1 Gyr. Although late-K dwarfs spin more slowly than early-K dwarfs when they are young, at old ages we find that late-K dwarfs rotate at the same rate or faster than early-K dwarfs of the same age. This result agrees qualitatively with semi-empirical models that vary the rate of surface-to-core angular momentum transport as a function of time and mass. It also aligns with recent observations of stars in the NGC 6811 cluster, which indicate that the surface rotation rates of K dwarfs go through an epoch of inhibited evolution. We find that the oldest Kepler stars with measured rotation periods are late-K and early-M dwarfs, indicating that these stars maintain spotted surfaces and stay magnetically active longer than more massive stars. Finally, based on their kinematics, we confirm that many rapidly rotating GKM dwarfs are likely to be synchronized binaries., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal

Spectroscopic observations are reported for the 2.75 day, double-lined, detached eclipsing binary EPIC 219552514 located at the turnoff of the old nearby open cluster Ruprecht 147. A joint analysis of our radial velocity measurements and the K2 light curve leads to masses of M1 = 1.509 (+0.063 / -0.056) MSun and M2 = 0.649 (+0.015 / -0.014) MSun for the primary and secondary, along with radii of R1 = 2.505 (+0.026 / -0.031) RSun and R2 = 0.652 (+0.013 / -0.012) RSun, respectively. The effective temperatures are 6180 +/- 100 K for the F7 primary and 4010 +/- 170 K for the late K secondary. The orbit is circular, and the stars' rotation appears to be synchronized with the orbital motion. This is the third eclipsing system analyzed in the same cluster, following our earlier studies of EPIC 219394517 and EPIC 219568666. By comparison with stellar evolution models from the PARSEC series, we infer an age of 2.67 (+0.39 / -0.55) Gyr that is consistent with the estimates for the other two systems. EPIC 219552514 is a hierarchical triple system, with the period of the slightly eccentric outer orbit being 463 days. The unseen tertiary is either a low-mass M dwarf or a white dwarf., Comment: 12 pages in emulateapj format, including figures and tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We report our spectroscopic monitoring of the detached, grazing, and slightly eccentric 12-day double-lined eclipsing binary EPIC 219568666 in the old nearby open cluster Ruprecht 147. This is the second eclipsing system to be analyzed in this cluster, following our earlier study of EPIC 219394517. Our analysis of the radial velocities combined with the light curve from the K2 mission yield absolute masses and radii for EPIC 219568666 of M1 = 1.121 +/- 0.013 M(Sun) and R1 = 1.1779 +/- 0.0070 R(Sun) for the F8 primary, and M2 = 0.7334 +/- 0.0050 M(Sun) and R2 = 0.640 +/- 0.017 R(Sun) for the faint secondary. Comparison with current stellar evolution models calculated for the known metallicity of the cluster points to a primary star that is oversized, as is often seen in active M dwarfs, but this seems rather unlikely for a star of its mass and with a low level of activity. Instead, we suspect a subtle bias in the radius ratio inferred from the photometry, despite our best efforts to avoid it, which may be related to the presence of spots on one or both stars. The radius sum for the binary, which bypasses this possible problem, indicates an age of 2.76 +/- 0.61 Gyr that is in good agreement with a similar estimate from the binary in our earlier study., Comment: 14 pages in emulateapj format, including tables and figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We gathered high resolution spectra for an ensemble of 55 bright active and inactive stars using the ARC 3.5 m Telescope Echelle Spectrograph at Apache Point Observatory ($R\approx$31,500). We measured spectroscopic effective temperatures, surface gravities and metallicities for most stars in the sample with SME and MOOG. Our stellar property results are consistent with the photometric effective temperatures from the Gaia DR2 pipeline. We also measured their chromospheric $S$ and $\log R^\prime_\mathrm{HK}$ indices to classify the stars as active or inactive and study the connection between chromospheric activity and starspots. We then attempted to infer the starspot covering fractions on the active stars by modeling their spectra as a linear combination of hot and cool inactive stellar spectral templates. We find that it is critical to use precise colors of the stars to place stringent priors on the plausible spot covering fractions. The inferred spot covering fractions generally increase with the chromospheric activity indicator $\log R^\prime_\mathrm{HK}$, though we are largely insensitive to spot coverages smaller than $f_S \lesssim 20$%. We find a dearth of stars with small $\log R^\prime_\mathrm{HK}$ and significant spot coverages., Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ

We explore the connection between starspots and plages of three main-sequence stars by studying the chromospheric and photospheric activity over several rotation periods. We present simultaneous photometry and high-resolution ($R\sim 31,500$) spectroscopy of KIC 9652680, a young, superflare-producing G1 star with a rotation period of 1.4 days. Its Kepler light curve shows rotational modulation consistent with a bright hemisphere followed by a relatively dark hemisphere, generating photometric variability with a semi-amplitude of 4%. We find that KIC 9652680 is darkest when its $S$-index of Ca II H & K emission is at its maximum. We interpret this anti-correlation between flux and $S$ to indicate that dark starspots in the photosphere are co-located with the bright plages in the chromosphere, as they are on the Sun. Moving to lower masses and slower rotators, we present K2 observations with simultaneous spectroscopy of EPIC 211928486 (K5V) and EPIC 211966629 (K4V), two active stars in the 650 Myr-old open cluster Praesepe. The K2 photometry reveals that both stars have rotation periods of 11.7 days; while their flux varies by 1 and 2% respectively, their Ca II H & K $S$-indices seem to hold relatively constant as a function of rotational phase. This suggests that extended chromospheric networks of plages are not concentrated into regions of emission centered on the starspots that drive rotational modulation, unlike KIC 9652680. We also note that the Ca II emission of EPIC 211928486 dipped and recovered suddenly over the duration of one rotation, suggesting that the evolution timescale of plages may be of order the rotation period., Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ

Eclipsing binaries in star clusters offer more stringent tests of stellar evolution theory than field binaries because models must not only match the binary properties, but also the radiative properties of all other cluster members at a single chemical composition and a single age. Here we report new spectroscopic observations of the G type, detached eclipsing binary EPIC 219394517 in the open cluster Ruprecht 147 ([Fe/H] = +0.10), which was observed in late 2015 by the K2 mission. A joint analysis of our radial-velocity measurements and the K2 light curve shows the 6.5 day orbit to be very nearly circular. We derive highly precise masses of 1.0782 +/- 0.0019 Msun and 1.0661 (+0.0027/-0.0021) Msun, radii of 1.055 +/- 0.011 Rsun and 1.042 +/- 0.012 Rsun, and effective temperatures of 5930 +/- 100 K and 5880 +/- 100 K for the primary and secondary, respectively. The distance we infer, 283 (+18/-16) pc, corresponds to a parallax in good agreement with the Gaia/DR2 value for the star. Current stellar evolution models from the MIST and PARSEC series match the above physical properties very well at ages of 2.48 and 2.65 Gyr. Isochrones for these same ages and the measured composition, along with our reddening estimate for EPIC 219394517, also show generally good agreement with the optical and near-infrared color-magnitude diagrams of the cluster, which can be constructed with no free parameters as the distances of all member stars are known from Gaia., Comment: 13 pages in emulateapj format, including figures and tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We observed eclipses of the transiting brown dwarf CWW 89Ab at 3.6um and 4.5um using Spitzer/IRAC. The CWW 89 binary system is a member of the $3.0\pm0.25$ Gyr-old open cluster Ruprecht 147, and is composed of a Sun-like primary and an early M-dwarf secondary separated by a projected distance of 25 AU. CWW 89Ab has a radius of $0.937\pm0.042$ RJ and a mass of $36.5\pm0.1$ MJ, and is on a 5.3 day orbit about CWW 89A with a non-zero eccentricity of $e=0.19$ (Curtis et al. 2016). We strongly detect the eclipses of CWW 89Ab in both Spitzer channels as $\delta_{3.6}=1147\pm213$ ppm and $\delta_{4.5}=1097\pm225$ ppm after correcting for the dilution from CWW 89B. After accounting for the irradiation that CWW 89Ab receives from its host star, these measurements imply that the brown dwarf has an internal luminosity of $\log(\mathrm{L_{bol}/\mathrm{L}_\odot})=-4.19\pm0.14$. This is 16 times, or $9.3\,\sigma$, higher than model predictions given the known mass, radius, and age of CWW 89Ab. As we discuss, this over-luminosity is not explainable by an inaccurate age determination, additional stellar heating, nor tidal heating. Instead, we suggest that the anomalous luminosity of CWW 89Ab is caused by a dayside temperature inversion -- though a significant error in the evolutionary models is also a possibility. Importantly, a temperature inversion would require a super-stellar C/O ratio in CWW 89Ab's atmosphere. If this is indeed the case, it implies that CWW 89Ab is a 36.5 MJ object that formed via core accretion processes. Finally, we use our measurement of CWW 89Ab's orbital eccentricity, improved via these observations, to constrain the tidal quality factors of the brown dwarf and the host star CWW 89A to be $Q_{BD}>10^{4.15}$ and $Q_*>10^{9}$, respectively., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures. AJ in press. Updated based on comments received

Transiting exoplanets in young open clusters present opportunities to study how exoplanets evolve over their lifetimes. Recently, significant progress detecting transiting planets in young open clusters has been made with the K2 mission, but so far all of these transiting cluster planets orbit close to their host stars, so planet evolution can only be studied in a high-irradiation regime. Here, we report the discovery of a long-period planet candidate, called HD 283869 b, orbiting a member of the Hyades cluster. Using data from the K2 mission, we detected a single transit of a super-Earth-sized (1.96 +/- 0.12 R_earth) planet candidate orbiting the K-dwarf HD 283869 with a period longer than 72 days. Since we only detected a single transit event, we cannot validate HD 283869 b with high confidence, but our analysis of the K2 images, archival data, and follow-up observations suggests that the source of the event is indeed a transiting planet. We estimated the candidate's orbital parameters and find that if real, it has a period P~100 days and receives approximately Earth-like incident flux, giving the candidate a 71% chance of falling within the circumstellar habitable zone. If confirmed, HD 283869 b would have the longest orbital period, lowest incident flux, and brightest host star of any known transiting planet in an open cluster, making it uniquely important to future studies of how stellar irradiation affects planetary evolution., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Accepted in AJ

We study the magnetic activity cycle of HD 4915 using the \ion{Ca}{2} H \& K emission line strengths measured by Keck I/HIRES spectrograph. The star has been observed as a part of California Planet Search Program from 2006 to present. We note decreasing amplitude in the magnetic activity cycle, a pattern suggesting the star's entry into a Magnetic Grand Minimum (MGM) state, reminiscent of the Sun's Maunder and Dalton Minima. We recommend further monitoring of the star to confirm the grand minimum nature of the dynamo, which would provide insight into the state of the Sun's chromosphere and the global magnetic field during its grand minima. We also recommend continued observations of H \& K emission lines, and ground or space based photometric observations to estimate the sunspot coverage., Comment: To be submitted to AAS Journals; comments welcome

The occurrence rate of hot Jupiters from the Kepler transit survey is roughly half that of radial velocity surveys targeting solar neighborhood stars. One hypothesis to explain this difference is that the two surveys target stars with different stellar metallicity distributions. To test this hypothesis, we measure the metallicity distribution of the Kepler targets using the Hectochelle multi-fiber, high-resolution spectrograph. Limiting our spectroscopic analysis to 610 dwarf stars in our sample with log(g)>3.5, we measure a metallicity distribution characterized by a mean of [M/H]_{mean} = -0.045 +/- 0.00, in agreement with previous studies of the Kepler field target stars. In comparison, the metallicity distribution of the California Planet Search radial velocity sample has a mean of [M/H]_{CPS, mean} = -0.005 +/- 0.006, and the samples come from different parent populations according to a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. We refit the exponential relation between the fraction of stars hosting a close-in giant planet and the host star metallicity using a sample of dwarf stars from the California Planet Search with updated metallicities. The best-fit relation tells us that the difference in metallicity between the two samples is insufficient to explain the discrepant Hot Jupiter occurrence rates; the metallicity difference would need to be $\simeq$0.2-0.3 dex for perfect agreement. We also show that (sub)giant contamination in the Kepler sample cannot reconcile the two occurrence calculations. We conclude that other factors, such as binary contamination and imperfect stellar properties, must also be at play., Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, submitted to ApJ

Astronomers have access to precious few nearby, middle-aged benchmark star clusters. Within 500 pc, there are only NGC 752 and Ruprecht 147 (R147), at 1.5 and 3 Gyr respectively. The Database for Galactic Open Clusters (WEBDA) also lists Lod\'{e}n 1 as a 2 Gyr cluster at a distance of 360 pc. If this is true, Lod\'{e}n 1 could become a useful benchmark cluster. This work details our investigation of Lod\'{e}n 1. We assembled archival astrometry (PPMXL) and photometry (2MASS, Tycho-2, APASS), and acquired medium resolution spectra for radial velocity measurements with the Robert Stobie Spectrograph (RSS) at the Southern African Large Telescope. We observed no sign of a cluster main-sequence turnoff or red giant branch amongst all stars in the field brighter than $J < 11$. Considering the 29 stars identified by L.O. Lod\'{e}n and listed on SIMBAD as the members of Lod\'{e}n 1, we found no compelling evidence of kinematic clustering in proper motion or radial velocity. Most of these candidates are A stars and red giants, and their observed properties are consistent with distant field stars in the direction of Lod\'{e}n 1 in the Galactic plane. We conclude that the old nearby cluster Lod\'{e}n 1 is neither old, nor nearby, nor a cluster., Comment: Accepted to AJ

We present a summary of the splinter session on "touchstone stars" -- stars with directly measured parameters -- that was organized as part of the Cool Stars 18 conference. We discuss several methods to precisely determine cool star properties such as masses and radii from eclipsing binaries, and radii and effective temperatures from interferometry. We highlight recent results in identifying and measuring parameters for touchstone stars, and ongoing efforts to use touchstone stars to determine parameters for other stars. We conclude by comparing the results of touchstone stars with cool star models, noting some unusual patterns in the differences., Comment: Proceedings of the 18th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun, Eds G. van Belle & H. Harris

We report spectroscopic and photometric observations of the Type IIb SN 2011dh obtained between 4 and 34 days after the estimated date of explosion (May 31.5 UT). The data cover a wide wavelength range from 2,000 Angstroms in the UV to 2.4 microns in the NIR. Optical spectra provide line profiles and velocity measurements of HI, HeI, CaII and FeII that trace the composition and kinematics of the SN. NIR spectra show that helium is present in the atmosphere as early as 11 days after the explosion. A UV spectrum obtained with the STIS reveals that the UV flux for SN 2011dh is low compared to other SN IIb. The HI and HeI velocities in SN 2011dh are separated by about 4,000 km/s at all phases. We estimate that the H-shell of SN 2011dh is about 8 times less massive than the shell of SN 1993J and about 3 times more massive than the shell of SN 2008ax. Light curves (LC) for twelve passbands are presented. The maximum bolometric luminosity of $1.8 \pm 0.2 \times 10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$ occurred about 22 days after the explosion. NIR emission provides more than 30% of the total bolometric flux at the beginning of our observations and increases to nearly 50% of the total by day 34. The UV produces 16% of the total flux on day 4, 5% on day 9 and 1% on day 34. We compare the bolometric light curves of SN 2011dh, SN 2008ax and SN 1993J. The LC are very different for the first twelve days after the explosions but all three SN IIb display similar peak luminosities, times of peak, decline rates and colors after maximum. This suggests that the progenitors of these SN IIb may have had similar compositions and masses but they exploded inside hydrogen shells that that have a wide range of masses. The detailed observations presented here will help evaluate theoretical models for this supernova and lead to a better understanding of SN IIb., Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, 9 tables, accepted by ApJ

Ruprecht 147 is a hitherto unappreciated open cluster that holds great promise as a standard in fundamental stellar astrophysics. We have conducted a radial velocity survey of astrometric candidates with Lick, Palomar, and MMT observatories and have identified over 100 members, including 5 blue stragglers, 11 red giants, and 5 double-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s). We estimate the cluster metallicity from spectroscopic analysis, using Spectroscopy Made Easy (SME), and find it to be [M/H] = +0.07 \pm 0.03. We have obtained deep CFHT/MegaCam g'r'i' photometry and fit Padova isochrones to the (g' - i') and 2MASS (J - K) CMDs using the \tau^2 maximum-likelihood procedure of Naylor (2009), and an alternative method using 2D cross-correlations developed in this work. We find best fits for isochrones at age t = 2.5 \pm 0.25 Gyr, m - M = 7.35 \pm 0.1, and A_V = 0.25 \pm 0.05, with additional uncertainty from the unresolved binary population and possibility of differential extinction across this large cluster. The inferred age is heavily dependent by our choice of stellar evolution model: fitting Dartmouth and PARSEC models yield age parameters of 3 Gyr and 3.25 Gyr respectively. At approximately 300 pc and 3 Gyr, Ruprecht 147 is by far the oldest nearby star cluster., Comment: 31 pages, 21 figures, 6 tables. Comments welcome

We calculate durations and spectral paramaters for 218 Swift bursts detected by the BAT instrument between and including GRBs 041220 and 070509, including 77 events with measured redshifts. Incorporating prior knowledge into the spectral fits, we are able to measure the characteristic $\nu F_{\nu}$ spectral peak energy $E_{\rm pk,obs}$ and the isotropic equivalent energy $E_{\rm iso}$ (1--$10^4$ keV) for all events. This complete and rather extensive catalog, analyzed with a unified methodology, allows us to address the persistence and origin of high-energy correlations suggested in pre-Swift observations. We find that the $E_{\rm pk,obs}$-$E_{\rm iso}$ correlation is present in the Swift sample; however, the best-fit powerlaw relation is inconsistent with the best-fit pre-Swift relation at >5 sigma significance. Moreover, it has a factor >~ 2 larger intrinsic scatter, after accounting for large errors on $E_{\rm pk,obs}$. A large fraction of the Swift events are hard and subluminous relative to (and inconsistent with) the pre-Swift relation, in agreement with indications from BATSE GRBs without redshift. Moreover, we determine an experimental threshold for the BAT detector and show how the $E_{\rm pk,obs}$--$E_{\rm iso}$ correlation arises artificially due to partial correlation with the threshold. We show that pre-Swift correlations found by Amati et al.(2002), Yonetoku et al. (2004), Firmani et al.(2006) (and independently by others) are likely unrelated to the physical properties of GRBs and are likely useless for tests of cosmology. Also, an explanation of these correlations in terms of a detector threshold provides a natural and quantitative explanation for why short-duration GRBs and events at low redshift tend to be outliers to the correlations., Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, Accepted to ApJ