No Arabic abstract
A determination of the initial mass function (IMF) of the current, incomplete census of the 10 Myr-old TW Hya association (TWA) is presented. This census is built from a literature compilation supplemented with new spectra and 17 new radial velocities, as well as a re-analysis of Hipparcos data that confirmed HR 4334 (A2Vn) as a member. Though the dominant uncertainty in the IMF remains census incompleteness, a detailed statistical treatment is carried out to make the IMF determination independent of binning, while accounting for small number statistics. The currently known high-likelihood members are fitted by a log-normal distribution with a central mass of $0.21^{+0.11}_{-0.06}$ $M_{odot}$ and a characteristic width of $0.8^{+0.2}_{-0.1}$ dex in the 12 $M_{rm Jup}$-2 $M_{odot}$ range, whereas a Salpeter power law with $alpha = 2.2^{+1.1}_{-0.5}$ best describes the IMF slope in the $0.1-2$ $M_{odot}$ range. This characteristic width is higher than other young associations, which may be due to incompleteness in the current census of low-mass TWA stars. A tentative overpopulation of isolated planetary-mass members similar to 2MASS J11472421-2040204 and 2MASS J11193254-1137466 is identified: this indicates that there might be as many as $10^{+13}_{-5}$ similar members of TWA with hot-start model-dependent masses estimated at $sim$ 5-7 $M_{rm Jup}$, most of which would be too faint to be detected in 2MASS. Our new radial velocity measurements corroborate the membership of 2MASS J11472421-2040204, and secure TWA 28 (M8.5$gamma$), TWA 29 (M9.5$gamma$) and TWA 33 (M4.5e) as members. The discovery of 2MASS J09553336-0208403, a young L7-type interloper unrelated to TWA, is also presented.
We present new photometric and spectroscopic data for the M-type members of the TW Hya association with the aim of a comprehensive study of accretion, disks and magnetic activity at the critical age of ~10 Myr where circumstellar matter disappears.
I report the results of a survey for low-mass (0.030 <~ M <~ 0.013 M_solar) brown dwarfs in the direction of the TW Hya association using 2MASS. Two late-M dwarfs show signs of low surface gravity and are strong candidates to be young, very-low-mass (M ~ 0.025 M_solar) brown dwarfs related to the TW Hya association. 2MASSW J1207334-393254 is particularly notable for its strong H alpha emission. The number of detected brown dwarfs is consistent with the substellar mass function in richer star formation environments. Newly identified late-M and L dwarfs in the field are also discussed. Unusual objects include an L dwarf with strong H alpha emission, a possible wide M8/M9 triple system, and a possible L dwarf companion to an LHS star.
We have performed new wide-field photometry of the young open cluster NGC 6231 to study the shape of the initial mass function (IMF) and mass segregation. We also investigated the reddening law toward NGC 6231 from optical to mid-infrared color excess ratios, and found that the total-to-selective extinction ratio is Rv = 3.2, which is very close to the normal value. But many early-type stars in the cluster center show large color excess ratios. We derived the surface density profiles of four member groups, and found that they reach the surface density of field stars at about 10, regardless of stellar mass. The IMF of NGC 6231 is derived for the mass range 0.8 -- 45 Msun. The slope of the IMF of NGC 6231 (Gamma = -1.1 +/- 0.1) is slightly shallower than the canonical value, but the difference is marginal. In addition, the mass function varies systematically, and is a strong function of radius - it is is very shallow at the center, and very steep at the outer ring suggesting the cluster is mass segregated. We confirm the mass segregation for the massive stars (m >~ 8 Msun) by a minimum spanning tree analysis. Using a Monte Carlo method, we estimate the total mass of NGC 6231 to be about 2.6 (+/- 0.6) x 10^3 Msun. We constrain the age of NGC 6231 by comparison with evolutionary isochrones. The age of the low-mass stars ranges from 1 to 7 Myr with a slight peak at 3 Myr. However the age of the high mass stars depends on the adopted models and is 3.5 +/- 0.5 Myr from the non- or moderately-rotating models of Brott et al. as well as the non-rotating models of Ekstrom et al. But the age is 4.0 -- 7.0 Myr if the rotating models of Ekstrom et al. are adopted. This latter age is in excellent agreement with the time scale of ejection of the high mass runaway star HD 153919 from NGC 6231, albeit the younger age cannot be entirely excluded.
We present broad-band mid-resolution X-Shooter/VLT spectra for four brown dwarfs of the TW Hya association. Our targets comprise substellar analogs representing the different evolutionary phases in young stellar evolution: For the two diskless brown dwarfs, TWA-26 and TWA-29, we determine the stellar parameters and we study their chromospheric emission line spectrum. For the two accreting brown dwarfs, TWA-27 and TWA-28, we estimate the mass accretion rates from empirical correlations between emission line luminosities and the accretion luminosity.
We assess the current membership of the nearby, young TW Hydrae Association and examine newly proposed members with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to search for infrared excess indicative of circumstellar disks. Newly proposed members TWA 30A, TWA 30B, TWA 31, and TWA 32 all show excess emission at 12 and 22 mum providing clear evidence for substantial dusty circumstellar disks around these low-mass, ~8 Myr old stars that were previously shown to likely be accreting from circumstellar material. TWA 30B shows large amounts of self-extinction, likely due to an edge-on disk geometry. We also confirm previously reported circumstellar disks with WISE, and determine a 22 mum excess fraction of 42+/- 9% based on our results.