Rotation periods of late-type stars in the young open cluster IC 2602

We present the results of a monitoring campaign aimed at deriving rotation periods for a representative sample of stars in the young (30 Myr) open cluster IC 2602. Rotation periods were derived for 29 of 33 stars monitored. The periods derived range from 0.2d (one of the shortest known rotation periods of any single open cluster star) to about 10d (which is almost twice as long as the longest period previously known for a cluster of this age). We are able to confirm 8 previously known periods and derive 21 new ones, delineating the long period end of the distribution. Despite our sensitivity to longer periods, we do not detect any variables with periods longer than about 10d. The combination of these data with those for IC 2391, an almost identical cluster, leads to the following conclusions:

1. The fast rotators in a 30 Myr cluster are distributed across the entire 0.5 < B-V < 1.6 color range.
2. 6 stars in our sample are slow rotators, with periods longer than 6d.
3. The amplitude of variability depends on both the color and the period. The dependence on the latter might be important in understanding the selection effects in the currently available rotation period database and in planning future observations.
4. The interpretation of these data in terms of theoretical models of rotating stars suggests both that disk-interaction is the norm rather than the exception in young stars and that disk-locking times range from zero to a few Myr.