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Register a new userUsing ages and kinematic traceback: the origin of young local associations
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Over the last decade, several groups of young (mainly low-mass) stars have been discovered in the solar neighbourhood (closer than ~100 pc), thanks to cross-correlation between X-ray, optical spectroscopy and kinematic data. These young local associations offer insights into the star formation process in low-density environments, shed light on the substellar domain, and could have played an important role in the recent history of the local interstellar medium. Ages estimates for these associations have been derived in the literature by several ways. In this work we have studied the kinematic evolution of young local associations and their relation to other young stellar groups and structures in the local interstellar medium, thus casting new light on recent star formation processes in the solar neighbourhood. We compiled the data published in the literature for young local associations, including the astrometric data from the new Hipparcos reduction. Using a realistic Galactic potential we integrated the orbits for these associations and the Sco-Cen complex back in time. Combining these data with the spatial structure of the Local Bubble and the spiral structure of the Galaxy, we propose a recent history of star formation in the solar neighbourhood. We suggest that both the Sco-Cen complex and young local associations originated as a result of the impact of the inner spiral arm shock wave against a giant molecular cloud. The core of the giant molecular cloud formed the Sco-Cen complex, and some small cloudlets in a halo around the giant molecular cloud formed young local associations several million years later. We also propose a supernova in young local associations a few million years ago as the most likely candidate to have reheated the Local Bubble to its present temperature.
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In this work we propose a scenario for the history of the recent star formation (during the last 20-30 Myr) in the nearest solar neighbourhood (~150 pc), from the study of the spatial and kinematic properties of the members of the so-called young local associations, the Sco-Cen complex and the Local Bubble, the most important structure observed in the local interstellar medium (ISM).
Our study is a follow-up of the SACY project, an extended survey in the Southern Hemisphere targeted to search for young nearby associations. Nine associations have either been newly identified, or had their member list better defined. These associations, with ages between about 6 Myr and 70 Myr, form an excellent sample to study the Li depletion in the pre-main sequence (PMS) evolution. We investigate the use of Li abundances as an independent clock to constrain the PMS evolution. We have calculated the LTE Li abundances for 376 members of different young associations. In addition we considered the effects of their projected stellar rotation. We present the Li depletion as function of age in the first hundred million years for the first time for the most extended sample of Li abundances in young stellar associations. A clear Li depletion can be measured in the temperature range from 5000K to 3500K for the age span covered by these nine associations. The age sequence based on the Li-clock agrees well with the isochronal ages, $epsilon$Cha association being the only possible exception. The lithium depletion patterns for those associations resemble those of the young open clusters, strengthening the notion that the members proposed for these loose young associations have indeed a common physical origin. The observed scatter in the Li abundances hampers the use of Li to determine reliable ages for individual stars. Rotation velocities above 20 km s$^{-1}$ seem to inhibit the Li depletion.
In this review I discuss different theories of the formation of OB associations in the Milky Way, and provide the observational evidences in support of them. In fact, the second release of Gaia astrometric data (April 2018) is revolutionising the field, because it allows us to unravel the 3D structure and kinematics of stellar associations with unprecedented details by providing precise distances and a solid membership assessment. As an illustration, I summarise some recent studies on three OB associations: Cygnus OB2, Vela OB2, and Scorpius OB1, focussing in more detail to Sco OB1. A multi-wavelength study, in tandem with astrometric and kinematic data from Gaia DR2, seems to lend support, at least in this case, to a scenario in which star formation is not monolithic. As a matter of fact, besides one conspicuous star cluster, NGC 6231, and the very sparse star cluster Trumpler 24, there are several smaller groups of young OB and pre-main sequence stars across the association, indicating that star formation is highly structured and with no preferred scale. A new revolution is expected with the incoming much awaited third release of Gaia data.
We have observed high-dispersion echelle spectra of main-sequence stars in five nearby young associations -- Argus, Carina-Near, Hercules-Lyra, Orion and Subgroup B4 -- and derived abundances for elements ranging from Na to Eu. These are the first chemical abundance measurements for two of the five associations, while the remaining three associations are analysed more extensively in our study. Our results support the presence of chemical homogeneity among association members with a typical star-to-star abundance scatter of about 0.06 dex or less over many elements. The five associations show log$epsilon$(Li) consistent with their age and share a solar chemical composition for all elements with the exception of Ba. We find that all the heavy elements (Y, Zr, La, Ce, Nd, Sm and Eu) exhibit solar ratios, i.e., [X/Fe] $simeq$ 0, while Ba is overabundant by about 0.2-0.3 dex. The origin of the overabundance of Ba is a puzzle. Within the formulation of the s-process, it is difficult to create a higher Ba abundance without a similar increase in the s-process contributions to other heavy elements (La-Sm). Given that Ba is represented by strong lines of Ba II and La-Sm are represented by rather weak ionized lines, the suggestion, as previously made by other studies, is that the Ba abundance may be systematically overestimated by standard methods of abundance analysis perhaps because the upper reaches of the stellar atmospheres are poorly represented by standard model atmospheres. A novel attempt to analyse the Ba I line at 5535 AA gives a solar Ba abundance for stars with effective temperatures hotter than about 5800 K but increasingly subsolar Ba abundances for cooler stars with apparent Ba deficiencies of 0.5 dex at 5100 K. This trend with temperature may signal a serious non-LTE effect on the Ba I line.
We discuss how contemporary multiwavelength observations of young OB-dominated clusters address long-standing astrophysical questions: Do clusters form rapidly or slowly with an age spread? When do clusters expand and disperse to constitute the field star population? Do rich clusters form by amalgamation of smaller subclusters? What is the pattern and duration of cluster formation in massive star forming regions (MSFRs)? Past observational difficulties in obtaining good stellar censuses of MSFRs have been alleviated in recent studies that combine X-ray and infrared surveys to obtain rich, though still incomplete, censuses of young stars in MSFRs. We describe here one of these efforts, the MYStIX project, that produced a catalog of 31,784 probable members of 20 MSFRs. We find that age spread within clusters are real in the sense that the stars in the core formed after the cluster halo. Cluster expansion is seen in the ensemble of (sub)clusters, and older dispersing populations are found across MSFRs. Direct evidence for subcluster merging is still unconvincing. Long-lived, asynchronous star formation is pervasive across MSFRs.
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