Description
We present new BVI_C_ photometry for 350 Pleiades proper motion members with 9<V<~17. Importantly, our new catalog includes a large number of K- and early M-type stars, roughly doubling the number of low-mass stars with well-calibrated Johnson/Cousins photometry in this benchmark cluster. We combine our new photometry with existing photometry from the literature to define a purely empirical isochrone at Pleiades age ({approx}100Myr) extending from V=9 to 17. We use the empirical isochrone to identify 48 new probable binaries and 14 likely nonmembers. The photometrically identified single stars are compared against their expected positions in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD). At 100Myr, the mid K and early M stars are predicted to lie above the zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) having not yet reached the ZAMS. We find in the B-V versus V CMD that mid K and early M dwarfs are instead displaced below (or blueward of) the ZAMS. Using the stars' previously reported rotation periods, we find a highly statistically significant correlation between rotation period and CMD displacement, in the sense that the more rapidly rotating stars have the largest displacements in the B-V CMD.
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