Abstract
The theory of magnetic braking by a thermo-centrifugal stellar wind is summarized. The basic result — ‘effective corotation’ out to the Alfvén surface — yields approximate laws for the spin-down of late-type stars, if one adopts a simple phenomenological dynamo relation between magnetic flux and angular velocity, and a similar relation between mass loss and magnetic flux. Comparison with the observed distributions of angular velocity in young stellar clusters already sets stringent constraints on the theory.
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Mestel, L. (1995). Angular momentum loss mechanisms and stellar spin-down. In: Roxburgh, I.W., Masnou, JL. (eds) Physical processes in astrophysics. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 458. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0118707
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0118707
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