Do accretion discs regulate the rotation of young stars?

We present a photometric study of I ‐band variability in the young cluster IC 348. The main purpose of the study was to identify periodic stars. In all, we find 50 periodic stars, of which 32 were previously unknown. For the first time in IC 348, we discover periods in significant numbers of lower‐mass stars ( M < 0.25 M ⊙ ) and classical T Tauri stars. This increased sensitivity to periodicities is a result of the enhanced depth and temporal density of our observations, compared with previous studies. The period distribution is at first glance similar to that seen in the Orion nebula cluster (ONC), with the higher‐mass stars ( M > 0.25 M ⊙ ) showing a bi‐modal period distribution concentrated around periods of 2 and 8 d, and the lower‐mass stars showing a uni‐modal distribution, heavily biased towards fast rotators. Closer inspection of the period distribution shows that the higher‐mass stars show a significant dearth of fast rotators, compared to the ONC, whilst the low‐mass stars are rotating significantly faster than those in Orion. We find no correlation between rotation period and K – L colour or Hα equivalent width. We also present a discussion of our own IC 348 data in the context of previously published period distributions for the ONC, the Orion flanking fields and NGC 2264. We find that the previously claimed correlation between infrared excess and rotation period in the ONC might, in fact, result from a correlation between infrared excess and mass. We also find a marked difference in period distributions between NGC 2264 and IC 348, which presents a serious challenge to the disc‐locking paradigm, given the similarity in ages and disc fractions between the two clusters.