  We present 75 new stellar rotation periods in the young cluster IC348. Stars
estimated to be less massive than 0.25 Mo show a unimodal distribution with a
peak at P ~1-2 d) and a tail of slower rotators, while stars estimated to be
more massive than 0.2 Mo show a bimodal distribution with peaks at ~2 and ~8 d.
We combine all published rotation periods in IC348 with Spitzer/IRAC photometry
in order to test the disk-braking paradigm. We find no evidence that the tail
of slow rotators in low-mass stars or the long period peak in high-mass stars
are preferentially populated by objects with disks as might be expected based
on the current disk-braking model. Also, we find no significant correlation
between period and the magnitude of the IR-excess, regardless of the mass range
considered. Our results do not support a strong correlation in this cluster
between rotation period and the presence of a disk as predicted by disk-braking
theory. Rather, they are consistent with the suggestion that the correlation
between period and the amplitude of the (I-K) excess reported in the past is a
secondary manifestation of the correlation between the amplitude of near-IR
excess and mass. Finally, we find some indication that the disk fraction
decreases significantly for stars with very short periods (P < 1.5 d). This is
the only feature of our sample that could potentially be interpreted as
evidence for disk braking. It has been proposed that the observational
signatures of disk braking might be significantly masked by the intrinsic
breadth of the initial period distribution. We argue that more rigorous
modeling of angular momentum evolution and a quantitative analysis of the
observational data are required before the disk-braking model can be regarded
as inconsistent with observations.
