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Rotation and Activity of Pre-Main-Sequence Stars
We present a study of rotation (vsini) and chromospheric activity(Hα equivalent width) based on an extensive set of high-resolutionoptical spectra obtained with the MIKE instrument on the 6.5 m MagellanClay telescope. Our targets are 74 F-M dwarfs in four young stellarassociations, spanning ages from 6 to 30 Myr. By comparing Hα EWsin our sample to results in the literature, we see a clear evolutionarysequence: Chromospheric activity declines steadily from the T Tauriphase to the main sequence. Using activity as an age indicator, we finda plausible age range for the Tuc-Hor association of 10-40 Myr. Between5 and 30 Myr, we do not see evidence for rotational braking in the totalsample, and thus angular momentum is conserved, in contrast to youngerstars. This difference indicates a change in the rotational regulationat ~5-10 Myr, possibly because disk braking cannot operate longer thantypical disk lifetimes, allowing the objects to spin up. Therotation-activity relation is flat in our sample; in contrast tomain-sequence stars, there is no linear correlation for slow rotators.We argue that this is because young stars generate their magnetic fieldsin a fundamentally different way from main-sequence stars, and not justthe result of a saturated solar-type dynamo. By comparing our rotationalvelocities with published rotation periods for a subset of stars, wedetermine ages of 13+7-6 and9+8-2 Myr for the η Cha and TWA associations,respectively, consistent with previous estimates. Thus we conclude thatstellar radii from evolutionary models by Baraffe et al. (1998) are inagreement with the observed radii to within +/-15%.
| Unraveling the Origins of Nearby Young Stars
A systematic search for close conjunctions and clusterings in the pastof nearby stars younger than the Pleiades is undertaken, which mayreveal the time, location, and mechanism of formation of these oftenisolated, disconnected from clusters and star-forming regions, objects.The sample under investigation includes 101 T Tauri, post-TT, andmain-sequence stars and stellar systems with signs of youth, culled fromthe literature. Their Galactic orbits are traced back in time and nearapproaches are evaluated in time, distance, and relative velocity.Numerous clustering events are detected, providing clues to the originof very young, isolated stars. Each star's orbit is also matched withthose of nearby young open clusters, OB and TT associations andstar-forming molecular clouds, including the Ophiuchus, Lupus, CoronaAustralis, and Chamaeleon regions. Ejection of young stars from openclusters is ruled out for nearly all investigated objects, but thenearest OB associations in Scorpius-Centaurus, and especially, the denseclouds in Ophiuchus and Corona Australis have likely played a major rolein the generation of the local streams (TWA, Beta Pic, andTucana-Horologium) that happen to be close to the Sun today. The core ofthe Tucana-Horologium association probably originated from the vicinityof the Upper Scorpius association 28 Myr ago. A few proposed members ofthe AB Dor moving group were in conjunction with the coeval Cepheus OB6association 38 Myr ago.
| Binarity of the Nearby 30 Myr Old Solar Analog HIP 16853 in the Tucana-Horologium Stream
A robust unconstrained orbital solution is obtained for the G2 V starHIP 16853 = HD 22705 at 42 pc, which is a probable member of the 28-30Myr old Tucana-Horologium stream of post-T Tauri stars. The solutionyields an apparent semimajor axis of 5.1+/-0.7 mas, a period of 201+/-2days, and an inclination of 80deg+/-7deg. Assuminga mass of 1 Msolar for the primary, the close companion isonly 0.4 Msolar, which implies a spectral type M0.5 at thisage. The expected maximum separation (a) between the companions is 18mas, which makes this system amenable for high-resolution observations.The wide companion HIP 16853 B at 14" is investigated as a possibletertiary component but rejected on account of the near-infraredphotometric data inconsistent with the well-defined H-R diagram of theTucana-Horologium group.
| Accretion Disks around Young Stars: Lifetimes, Disk Locking, and Variability
We report the findings of a comprehensive study of disk accretion andrelated phenomena in four of the nearest young stellar associationsspanning 6-30 million years in age, an epoch that may coincide with thelate stages of planet formation. We have obtained ~650 multiepochhigh-resolution optical spectra of 100 low-mass stars that are likelymembers of the η Chamaeleontis (~6 Myr), TW Hydrae (~8 Myr), βPictoris (~12 Myr), and Tucanae-Horologium (~30 Myr) groups. Our datawere collected over 12 nights between 2004 December and 2005 July on theMagellan Clay 6.5 m telescope. Based on Hα line profiles, alongwith a variety of other emission lines, we find clear evidence ofongoing accretion in 3 out of 11 η Cha stars and 2 out of 32 TWHydrae members. None of the 57 β Pic or Tuc-Hor members showsmeasurable signs of accretion. Together, these results imply significantevolution of the disk-accretion process within the first several Myr ofa low-mass star's life. While a few disks can continue to accrete for upto ~10 Myr, our findings suggest that disks accreting for beyond thattimescale are rather rare. This result provides an indirect constrainton the timescale for gas dissipation in inner disks and, in turn, ongas-giant planet formation. All accretors in our sample are slowrotators, whereas nonaccretors cover a large range in rotationalvelocities. This may hint at rotational braking by disks at ages up to~8 Myr. Our multiepoch spectra confirm that emission-line variability iscommon even in somewhat older T Tauri stars, among which accretors tendto show particularly strong variations. Thus, our results indicate thataccretion and wind activity undergo significant and sustained variationsthroughout the lifetime of accretion disks.
| Statistical Constraints for Astrometric Binaries with Nonlinear Motion
Useful constraints on the orbits and mass ratios of astrometric binariesin the Hipparcos catalog are derived from the measured proper motiondifferences of Hipparcos and Tycho-2 (Δμ), accelerations ofproper motions (μ˙), and second derivatives of proper motions(μ̈). It is shown how, in some cases, statistical bounds can beestimated for the masses of the secondary components. Two catalogs ofastrometric binaries are generated, one of binaries with significantproper motion differences and the other of binaries with significantaccelerations of their proper motions. Mathematical relations betweenthe astrometric observables Δμ, μ˙, and μ̈ andthe orbital elements are derived in the appendices. We find a remarkabledifference between the distribution of spectral types of stars withlarge accelerations but small proper motion differences and that ofstars with large proper motion differences but insignificantaccelerations. The spectral type distribution for the former sample ofbinaries is the same as the general distribution of all stars in theHipparcos catalog, whereas the latter sample is clearly dominated bysolar-type stars, with an obvious dearth of blue stars. We point outthat the latter set includes mostly binaries with long periods (longerthan about 6 yr).
| Young Stars Near the Sun
Until the late 1990s the rich Hyades and the sparse UMa clusters werethe only coeval, comoving concentrations of stars known within 60 pc ofEarth. Both are hundreds of millions of years old. Then beginning in thelate 1990s the TW Hydrae Association, the Tucana/Horologium Association,the Pictoris Moving Group, and the AB Doradus Moving Group wereidentified within 60 pc of Earth, and the Chamaeleontis cluster wasfound at 97 pc. These young groups (ages 8 50 Myr), along with othernearby, young stars, will enable imaging and spectroscopic studies ofthe origin and early evolution of planetary systems.
| The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood. Ages, metallicities, and kinematic properties of 14 000 F and G dwarfs
We present and discuss new determinations of metallicity, rotation, age,kinematics, and Galactic orbits for a complete, magnitude-limited, andkinematically unbiased sample of 16 682 nearby F and G dwarf stars. Our63 000 new, accurate radial-velocity observations for nearly 13 500stars allow identification of most of the binary stars in the sampleand, together with published uvbyβ photometry, Hipparcosparallaxes, Tycho-2 proper motions, and a few earlier radial velocities,complete the kinematic information for 14 139 stars. These high-qualityvelocity data are supplemented by effective temperatures andmetallicities newly derived from recent and/or revised calibrations. Theremaining stars either lack Hipparcos data or have fast rotation. Amajor effort has been devoted to the determination of new isochrone agesfor all stars for which this is possible. Particular attention has beengiven to a realistic treatment of statistical biases and errorestimates, as standard techniques tend to underestimate these effectsand introduce spurious features in the age distributions. Our ages agreewell with those by Edvardsson et al. (\cite{edv93}), despite severalastrophysical and computational improvements since then. We demonstrate,however, how strong observational and theoretical biases cause thedistribution of the observed ages to be very different from that of thetrue age distribution of the sample. Among the many basic relations ofthe Galactic disk that can be reinvestigated from the data presentedhere, we revisit the metallicity distribution of the G dwarfs and theage-metallicity, age-velocity, and metallicity-velocity relations of theSolar neighbourhood. Our first results confirm the lack of metal-poor Gdwarfs relative to closed-box model predictions (the ``G dwarfproblem''), the existence of radial metallicity gradients in the disk,the small change in mean metallicity of the thin disk since itsformation and the substantial scatter in metallicity at all ages, andthe continuing kinematic heating of the thin disk with an efficiencyconsistent with that expected for a combination of spiral arms and giantmolecular clouds. Distinct features in the distribution of the Vcomponent of the space motion are extended in age and metallicity,corresponding to the effects of stochastic spiral waves rather thanclassical moving groups, and may complicate the identification ofthick-disk stars from kinematic criteria. More advanced analyses of thisrich material will require careful simulations of the selection criteriafor the sample and the distribution of observational errors.Based on observations made with the Danish 1.5-m telescope at ESO, LaSilla, Chile, and with the Swiss 1-m telescope at Observatoire deHaute-Provence, France.Complete Tables 1 and 2 are only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/418/989
| Nearby young stars
We present the results of an extensive all-sky survey of nearby stars ofspectral type F8 or later in a systematic search of young (zero-age mainsequence) objects. Our sample has been derived by cross-correlating theROSAT All-Sky Survey and the TYCHO catalogue, yielding a total of 754candidates distributed more or less randomly over the sky. Follow-upspectroscopy of these candidate objects has been performed on 748 ofthem. We have discovered a tight kinematic group of ten stars withextremely high lithium equivalent widths that are presumably youngerthan the Pleiades, but again distributed rather uniformly over the sky.Furthermore, about 43 per cent of our candidates have detectable levelsof lithium, thus indicating that these are relatively young objects withages not significantly above the Pleiades age.Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory,Chile (ESO No. 62.I-0650, 66.D-0159(A), 67.D-0236(A)).
| Detection of moving clusters by a method of cinematic pairs.
Not Available
| The ROSAT Bright Survey: II. Catalogue of all high-galactic latitude RASS sources with PSPC countrate CR > 0.2 s-1
We present a summary of an identification program of the more than 2000X-ray sources detected during the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (Voges et al.1999) at high galactic latitude, |b| > 30degr , with countrate above0.2 s-1. This program, termed the ROSAT Bright Survey RBS, isto more than 99.5% complete. A sub-sample of 931 sources with countrateabove 0.2 s-1 in the hard spectral band between 0.5 and 2.0keV is to 100% identified. The total survey area comprises 20391deg2 at a flux limit of 2.4 x 10-12 ergcm-2 s-1 in the 0.5 - 2.0 keV band. About 1500sources of the complete sample could be identified by correlating theRBS with SIMBAD and the NED. The remaining ~ 500 sources were identifiedby low-resolution optical spectroscopy and CCD imaging utilizingtelescopes at La Silla, Calar Alto, Zelenchukskaya and Mauna Kea. Apartfrom completely untouched sources, catalogued clusters and galaxieswithout published redshift as well as catalogued galaxies with unusualhigh X-ray luminosity were included in the spectroscopic identificationprogram. Details of the observations with an on-line presentation of thefinding charts and the optical spectra will be published separately.Here we summarize our identifications in a table which contains opticaland X-ray information for each source. As a result we present the mostmassive complete sample of X-ray selected AGNs with a total of 669members and a well populated X-ray selected sample of 302 clusters ofgalaxies with redshifts up to 0.70. Three fields studied by us remainwithout optical counterpart (RBS0378, RBS1223, RBS1556). While the firstis a possible X-ray transient, the two latter are isolated neutron starcandidates (Motch et al. 1999, Schwope et al. 1999).
| Metallicity effects on the chromospheric activity-age relation for late-type dwarfs
We show that there is a relationship between the age excess, defined asthe difference between the stellar isochrone and chromospheric ages, andthe metallicity as measured by the index [Fe/H] for late-type dwarfs.The chromospheric age tends to be lower than the isochrone age formetal-poor stars, and the opposite occurs for metal-rich objects. Wesuggest that this could be an effect of neglecting the metallicitydependence of the calibrated chromospheric emission-age relation. Wepropose a correction to account for this dependence. We also investigatethe metallicity distributions of these stars, and show that there aredistinct trends according to the chromospheric activity level. Inactivestars have a metallicity distribution which resembles the metallicitydistribution of solar neighbourhood stars, while active stars appear tobe concentrated in an activity strip on the logR'_HKx[Fe/H] diagram. Weprovide some explanations for these trends, and show that thechromospheric emission-age relation probably has different slopes on thetwo sides of the Vaughan-Preston gap.
| A Survey of Ca II H and K Chromospheric Emission in Southern Solar-Type Stars
More than 800 southern stars within 50 pc have been observed forchromospheric emission in the cores of the Ca II H and K lines. Most ofthe sample targets were chosen to be G dwarfs on the basis of colors andspectral types. The bimodal distribution in stellar activity first notedin a sample of northern stars by Vaughan and Preston in 1980 isconfirmed, and the percentage of active stars, about 30%, is remarkablyconsistent between the northern and southern surveys. This is especiallycompelling given that we have used an entirely different instrumentalsetup and stellar sample than used in the previous study. Comparisons tothe Sun, a relatively inactive star, show that most nearby solar-typestars have a similar activity level, and presumably a similar age. Weidentify two additional subsamples of stars -- a very active group, anda very inactive group. The very active group may be made up of youngstars near the Sun, accounting for only a few percent of the sample, andappears to be less than ~0.1 Gyr old. Included in this high-activitytail of the distribution, however, is a subset of very close binaries ofthe RS CVn or W UMa types. The remaining members of this population maybe undetected close binaries or very young single stars. The veryinactive group of stars, contributting ~5%--10% to the total sample, maybe those caught in a Maunder Minimum type phase. If the observations ofthe survey stars are considered to be a sequence of snapshots of the Sunduring its life, we might expect that the Sun will spend about 10% ofthe remainder of its main sequence life in a Maunder Minimum phase.
| Stroemgren photometry of F- and G-type stars brighter than V = 9.6. I. UVBY photometry
Within the framework of a large photometric observing program, designedto investigate the Galaxy's structure and evolution, Hβ photometryis being made for about 9000 stars. As a by-product, supplementary uvbyphotometry has been made. The results are presented in a cataloguecontaining 6924 uvby observations of 6190 stars, all south ofδ=+38deg. The overall internal rms errors of one observation(transformed to the standard system) of a program star in the interval6.5
| The position corrections of 1400 stars observed with PA II in San Juan.
Not Available
| Fifth fundamental catalogue. Part 2: The FK5 extension - new fundamental stars
The mean positions and proper motions for 3117 new fundamental starsessentially in the magnitude range about 4.5 to 9.5 are given in thisFK5 extension. Mean apparent visual magnitude is 7.2 and is on average2.5 magnitudes fainter then the basic FK5 which has a mean magnitude of4.7. (The basic FK5 gives the mean positions and proper motions for theclassical 1535 fundamental stars). The following are discussed: theobservational material, reduction of observations, star selection, andthe system for the FK5 extension. An explanation and description of thecatalog are given. The catalog of 3117 fundamental stars for the equinoxand epoch J2000.0 and B1950.0 is presented. The parallaxes and radialvelocities for 22 extension stars with large forecasting effects aregiven. Catalogs used in the compilation of the FK5 fundamental catalogare listed.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Horologium |
| Right ascension: | 03h36m53.40s |
| Declination: | -49°57'28.9" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 7.629 |
| Distance: | 41.667 parsecs |
| Proper motion RA: | 86.6 |
| Proper motion Dec: | -1 |
| B-T magnitude: | 8.355 |
| V-T magnitude: | 7.689 |
Catalogs and designations:
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INHABITED SKY
