Abstract

This paper describes the behavior of the rotational velocity in metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] = -0.5 dex) in different evolutionary stages, based on vsin i values from the literature. Our sample is comprised of stars in the field and some Galactic globular clusters, including stars on the main sequence, the red giant branch (RGB), and the horizontal branch (HB). The metal-poor stars are, mainly, slow rotators, and their vsin i distribution along the HR diagram is quite homogeneous. Nevertheless, a few moderate to high values of vsin i are found in stars located on the main sequence and the HB. We show that the overall distribution of vsin i values is basically independent of metallicity for the stars in our sample. In particular, the fast-rotating main sequence stars in our sample present rotation rates similar to their metal-rich counterparts, suggesting that some of them may actually be fairly young, in spite of their low metallicity, or else that at least some of them would be better classified as blue straggler stars. We do not find significant evidence of evolution in vsin i values as a function of position on the RGB; in particular, we do not confirm previous suggestions that stars close to the RGB tip rotate faster than their less-evolved counterparts. While the presence of fast rotators among moderately cool blue HB stars has been suggested to be due to angular momentum transport from a stellar core that has retained significant angular momentum during its prior evolution, we find that any such transport mechanisms most likely operate very fast as the star arrives on the zero-age HB (ZAHB), since we do not find a link between evolution off the ZAHB and vsin i values. We present an extensive tabulation of all quantities discussed in this paper, including rotation velocities, temperatures, gravities, and metallicities [Fe/H], as well as broadband magnitudes and colors. © 2009 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.