Context : Understanding the origin and evolution of stellar angular momentum is one of the major challenges of stellar physics .

Aims : We present new models for the rotational evolution of solar-like stars between 1 Myr and 10 Gyr with the aim of reproducing the distributions of rotational periods observed for star forming regions and young open clusters within this age range .

Methods : The models include a new wind braking law based on recent numerical simulations of magnetized stellar winds and specific dynamo and mass-loss prescriptions are adopted to tie angular momentum loss to angular velocity .
The models additionally assume constant angular velocity during the disk accretion phase and allow for decoupling between the radiative core and the convective envelope as soon as the former develops .

Results : We have developed rotational evolution models for slow , median , and fast rotators with initial periods of 10 , 7 , and 1.4d , respectively .
The models reproduce reasonably well the rotational behavior of solar-type stars between 1 Myr and 4.5 Gyr , including pre-main sequence ( PMS ) to zero-age main sequence ( ZAMS ) spin up , prompt ZAMS spin down , and the early-main sequence ( MS ) convergence of surface rotation rates .
We find the model parameters accounting for the slow and median rotators are very similar to each other , with a disk lifetime of 5 Myr and a core-envelope coupling timescale of 28-30 Myr .
In contrast , fast rotators have both shorter disk lifetimes ( 2.5 Myr ) and core-envelope coupling timescales ( 12 Myr ) .
We show that a large amount of angular momentum is hidden in the radiative core for as long as 1 Gyr in these models and we discuss the implications for internal differential rotation and lithium depletion .
We emphasize that these results are highly dependent on the adopted braking law .
We also report a tentative correlation between the initial rotational period and disk lifetime , which suggests that protostellar spin down by massive disks in the embedded phase is at the origin of the initial dispersion of rotation rates in young stars .

Conclusions : We conclude that this class of semi-empirical models successfully grasp the main trends of the rotational behavior of solar-type stars as they evolve and make specific predictions that may serve as a guide for further development .