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Register a new userThe Tucana/Horologium, Columba, AB Doradus, and Argus Associations: New Members and Dusty Debris Disks
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We propose 35 star systems within ~70 pc of Earth as newly identified members of nearby young stellar kinematic groups; these identifications include the first A- and late-B type members of the AB Doradus moving group and field Argus Association. All but one of the 35 systems contain a bright solar- or earlier-type star that should make an excellent target for the next generation of adaptive optics (AO) imaging systems on large telescopes. AO imaging has revealed four massive planets in orbit around the {lambda} Boo star HR 8799. Initially the planets were of uncertain mass due in large part to the uncertain age of the star. We find that HR 8799 is a likely member of the ~30 Myr old Columba Association implying planet masses ~6 times that of Jupiter. We consider Spitzer Space Telescope MIPS photometry of stars in the ~30 Myr old Tucana/Horologium and Columba Associations, the ~40 Myr old field Argus Association, and the ~70 Myr old AB Doradus moving group. The percentage of stars in these young stellar groups that display excess emission above the stellar photosphere at 24 and 70 mu m wavelengths - indicative of the presence of a dusty debris disk - is compared with corresponding percentages for members of 11 open clusters and stellar associations with ages between 8 and 750 Myr, thus elucidating the decay of debris disks with time.
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The reality of a field Argus Association has been doubted in some papers in the literature. We apply Gaia DR2 data to stars previously suggested to be Argus members and conclude that a true association exists with age 40-50 Myr and containing many stars within 100 pc of Earth; Beta Leo and 49 Cet are two especially interesting members. Based on youth and proximity to Earth, Argus is one of the better nearby moving groups to target in direct imaging programs for dusty debris disks and young planets.
We report the selection and spectroscopic confirmation of 129 new late-type (K3-M6) members of the Tuc-Hor moving group, a nearby (~40 pc), young (~40 Myr) population of comoving stars. We also report observations for 13/17 known Tuc-Hor members in this spectral type range, and that 62 additional candidates are likely to be unassociated field stars; the confirmation frequency for new candidates is therefore 129/191 = 67%. We have used RVs, Halpha emission, and Li6708 absorption to distinguish contaminants and bona fide members. Our expanded census of Tuc-Hor increases the known population by a factor of ~3 in total and by a factor of ~8 for members with SpT>K3, but even so, the K-M dwarf population of Tuc-Hor is still markedly incomplete. The spatial distribution of members appears to trace a 2D sheet, with a broad distribution in X and Y, but a very narrow distribution (+/-5 pc) in Z. The corresponding velocity distribution is very small, with a scatter of +/-1.1 km/s about the mean UVW velocity. We also show that the isochronal age (20--30 Myr) and the lithium depletion age (40 Myr) disagree, following a trend seen in other PMS populations. The Halpha emission follows a trend of increasing EW with later SpT, as seen for young clusters. We find that members have been depleted of lithium for spectral types of K7.0-M4.5. Finally, our purely kinematic and color-magnitude selection procedure allows us to test the efficiency and completeness for activity-based selection of young stars. We find that 60% of K-M dwarfs in Tuc-Hor do not have ROSAT counterparts and would be omitted in Xray selected samples. GALEX UV-selected samples using a previously suggested criterion for youth achieve completeness of 77% and purity of 78%. We suggest new selection criteria that yield >95% completeness for ~40 Myr populations.(Abridged)
Because of proximity to the Galactic plane, reliable identification of members of the alpha Persei cluster is often problematic. Based primarily on membership evaluations contained in six published papers, we constructed a mostly complete list of high-fidelity members of spectral type G and earlier that lie within 3 arc degrees of the cluster center. Alpha Persei was the one nearby, rich, young open cluster not surveyed with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We examined the first and final data releases of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and found 11, or perhaps 12, alpha Per cluster members that have excess mid-infrared emission above the stellar photosphere attributable to an orbiting dusty debris disk. The most unusual of these is V488 Per, a K-type star with an excess IR luminosity 16% (or more) of the stellar luminosity; this is a larger excess fraction than that of any other known dusty main sequence star. Much of the dust that orbits V488 Per is at a temperature of ~800 K; if these grains radiate like blackbodies, then they lie only ~0.06 AU from the star. The dust is probably the aftermath of a collision of two planetary embryos or planets with small semimajor axes; such orbital radii are similar to those of many of the transiting planets discovered by the Kepler satellite.
We have used the Spitzer Space Telescope to obtain Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) 24 um photometry for 37 members of the ~100 Myr old open cluster Blanco 1. For the brightest 25 of these stars (where we have 3sigma uncertainties less than 15%), we find significant mid-IR excesses for eight stars, corresponding to a debris disk detection frequency of about 32%. The stars with excesses include two A stars, four F dwarfs and two G dwarfs. The most significant linkage between 24 um excess and any other stellar property for our Blanco 1 sample of stars is with binarity. Blanco 1 members that are photometric binaries show few or no detected 24 um excesses whereas a quarter of the apparently single Blanco 1 members do have excesses. We have examined the MIPS data for two other clusters of similar age to Blanco 1 -- NGC 2547 and the Pleiades. The AFGK photometric binary star members of both of these clusters also show a much lower frequency of 24 um excesses compared to stars that lie near the single-star main sequence. We provide a new determination of the relation between V-Ks color and Ks-[24] color for main sequence photospheres based on Hyades members observed with MIPS. As a result of our analysis of the Hyades data, we identify three low mass Hyades members as candidates for having debris disks near the MIPS detection limit.
Optical spectroscopic observations are reported for 24 and 23, nearby, proper-motion-selected M-dwarf candidate members of the Beta Pictoris and AB Doradus moving groups (BPMG and ABDMG). Using kinematic criteria, the presence of both Halpha emission and high X-ray-to-bolometric luminosity, and position in absolute colour-magnitude diagrams, 10 and 6 of these candidates are confirmed as likely members of the BPMG and ABDMG respectively. Equivalent widths or upper limits for the Li I 6708A line are reported and the lithium depletion boundary (LDB) age of the BPMG is revisited. Whilst non-magnetic evolutionary models still yield an estimated age of 21 +/- 4 Myr, models that incorporate magnetic inhibition of convection imply an older age of 24 +/- 4 Myr. A similar systematic increase would be inferred if the stars were 25 per cent covered by dark magnetic starspots. Since young, convective M-dwarfs are magnetically active and do have starspots, we suggest that the original LDB age estimate is a lower limit. The LDB age of the ABDMG is still poorly constrained -- non-magnetic evolutionary models suggest an age in the range 35-150 Myr, which could be significantly tightened by new measurements for existing candidate members.
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