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Keivan G Stassun - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the initial mass function of the Orion Nebula cluster across the h burning limit
The Astrophysical Journal, 2012Co-Authors: N Da Rio, Lynne A Hillenbrand, M Robberto, Th Henning, Keivan G StassunAbstract:We present a new census of the Orion Nebula Cluster over a large field of view (≳30' × 30'), significantly increasing the known population of stellar and substellar cluster members with precisely determined properties. We develop and exploit a technique to determine stellar effective temperatures from optical colors, nearly doubling the previously available number of objects with effective temperature determinations in this benchmark cluster. Our technique utilizes colors from deep photometry in the I band and in two medium-band filters at λ ~ 753 and 770 nm, which accurately measure the depth of a molecular feature present in the spectra of cool stars. From these colors we can derive effective temperatures with a precision corresponding to better than one-half spectral subtype, and importantly this precision is independent of the extinction to the individual stars. Also, because this technique utilizes only photometry redward of 750 nm, the results are only mildly sensitive to optical veiling produced by accretion. Completing our census with previously available data, we place some 1750 sources in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and assign masses and ages down to 0.02 solar masses. At faint luminosities, we detect a large population of background sources which is easily separated in our photometry from the bona fide cluster members. The resulting initial mass function of the cluster has good completeness well into the substellar mass range, and we find that it declines steeply with decreasing mass. This suggests a deficiency of newly formed brown dwarfs in the cluster compared to the Galactic disk population.
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discovery of par 1802 as a low mass pre main sequence eclipsing binary in the Orion star forming region
The Astrophysical Journal, 2008Co-Authors: P A Cargile, Keivan G Stassun, Robert D MathieuAbstract:We report the discovery of a pre-main-sequence (PMS), low-mass, double-lined, spectroscopic, eclipsing binary in the Orion star-forming region. We present our observations, including radial velocities derived from optical high-resolution spectroscopy, and present an orbit solution that permits the determination of precise empirical masses for both components of the system. We find that Par 1802 is composed of two equal-mass ( -->0.39 ± 0.03, -->0.40 ± 0.03 M☉) stars in a circular, 4.7 day orbit. There is strong evidence, such as the system exhibiting strong Li lines and a center-of-mass velocity consistent with cluster membership, that this system is a member of the Orion star-forming region and quite possibly the Orion Nebula Cluster, and therefore has an age of only a few million years. As there are currently only a few empirical mass and radius measurements for low-mass, PMS stars, this system presents an interesting test for the predictions of current theoretical models of PMS stellar evolution.
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discovery of par 1802 as a low mass pre main sequence eclipsing binary in the Orion star forming region
arXiv: Astrophysics, 2007Co-Authors: P A Cargile, Keivan G Stassun, Robert D MathieuAbstract:We report the discovery of a pre-main-sequence, low-mass, double-lined, spectroscopic, eclipsing binary in the Orion star-forming region. We present our observations including radial velocities derived from optical high-resolution spectroscopy, and present an orbit solution that permits the determination of precise empirical masses for both components of the system. We measure that Par 1802 is composed of two equal mass (0.39+-0.03, 0.40+-0.03 Msun) stars in a circular, 4.7 day orbit. There is strong evidence, such as the system exhibiting strong Li lines and a center-of-mass velocity consistent with cluster membership, that this system is a member of the Orion star-forming region and quite possibly the Orion Nebula Cluster, and therefore has an age of only a few million years. As there are currently only a few empirical mass and radius measurements for low-mass, PMS stars, this system presents an interesting test for the predictions of current theoretical models of pre-main sequence stellar evolution.
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the monitor project jw 380 a 0 26 0 15 msol pre main sequence eclipsing binary in the Orion Nebula cluster
arXiv: Astrophysics, 2007Co-Authors: J Irwin, Keivan G Stassun, S Aigrain, S T Hodgkin, Leslie Hebb, M J Irwin, Estelle Moraux, J Bouvier, A Alapini, R D AlexanderAbstract:We report the discovery of a low-mass (0.26 +/- 0.02, 0.15 +/- 0.01 Msol) pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary with a 5.3 day orbital period. JW 380 was detected as part of a high-cadence time-resolved photometric survey (the Monitor project) using the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope and Wide Field Camera for a survey of a single field in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) region in V and i bands. The star is assigned a 99 per cent membership probability from proper motion measurements, and radial velocity observations indicate a systemic velocity within 1 sigma of that of the ONC. Modelling of the combined light and radial velocity curves of the system gave stellar radii of 1.19 +0.04 -0.18 Rsol and 0.90 +0.17 -0.03 Rsol for the primary and secondary, with a significant third light contribution which is also visible as a third peak in the cross-correlation functions used to derive radial velocities. The masses and radii appear to be consistent with stellar models for 2-3 Myr age from several authors, within the present observational errors. These observations probe an important region of mass-radius parameter space, where there are currently only a handful of known pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary systems with precise measurements available in the literature.
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the origin of t tauri x ray emission new insights from the chandra Orion ultradeep project
Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 2005Co-Authors: Thomas Preibisch, Keivan G Stassun, E Flaccomio, G Micela, S Sciortino, Y C Kim, F Favata, E D Feigelson, Konstantin V Getman, B StelzerAbstract:The Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP) provides the most comprehensive data set ever acquired on the X-rayemissionofpre–main-sequencestars.Inthispaper,westudythenearly600X-raysourcesthatcanbereliably identified with optically well-characterized T Tauri stars (TTSs) in the Orion Nebula Cluster. With a detection limit of LX; min � 10 27:3 ergs s � 1 for lightly absorbed sources, we detect X-ray emission from more than 97% of the optically visible late-type (spectral types F–M) cluster stars. This proves that there is no ‘‘X-ray–quiet’’ population of late-type stars with suppressed magnetic activity. We use this exceptional optical, infrared, and X-ray data set tostudythe dependenciesoftheX-rayproperties onotherstellarparameters. AllTTSs withknownrotationperiods lie in the saturated or supersaturated regime of the relation between activity and Rossby numbers seen for mainsequence (MS) stars, but the TTSs show a much larger scatter in X-ray activity than that seen for the MS stars. Strong near-linear relations between X-ray luminosities, bolometric luminosities, and mass are present. We also
John Bally - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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from downtown to the outskirts a radio survey of the Orion Nebula cluster
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2021Co-Authors: Jaime Vargasgonzalez, Jan Forbrich, S A Dzib, John BallyAbstract:© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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protoplanetary disk properties in the Orion Nebula cluster initial results from deep high resolution alma observations
The Astrophysical Journal, 2018Co-Authors: J A Eisner, Hector G Arce, James Di Francesco, John Bally, Nicholas P Ballering, Sean M Andrews, R D Boyden, Min Fang, D Johnstone, Jinyoung Serena KimAbstract:We present ALMA 850 $\mu$m continuum observations of the Orion Nebula Cluster that provide the highest angular resolution ($\sim 0\rlap{.}''1 \approx 40$ AU) and deepest sensitivity ($\sim 0.1$ mJy) of the region to date. We mosaicked a field containing $\sim 225$ optical or near-IR-identified young stars, $\sim 60$ of which are also optically-identified "proplyds". We detect continuum emission at 850 $\mu$m towards $\sim 80$% of the proplyd sample, and $\sim 50$% of the larger sample of previously-identified cluster members. Detected objects have fluxes of $\sim 0.5$-80 mJy. We remove sub-mm flux due to free-free emission in some objects, leaving a sample of sources detected in dust emission. Under standard assumptions of isothermal, optically thin disks, sub-mm fluxes correspond to dust masses of $\sim 0.5$ to 80 Earth masses. We measure the distribution of disk sizes, and find that disks in this region are particularly compact. Such compact disks are likely to be significantly optically thick. The distributions of sub-mm flux and inferred disk size indicate smaller, lower-flux disks than in lower-density star-forming regions of similar age. Measured disk flux is correlated weakly with stellar mass, contrary to studies in other star forming regions that found steeper correlations. We find a correlation between disk flux and distance from the massive star $\theta^1$ Ori C, suggesting that disk properties in this region are influenced strongly by the rich cluster environment.
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silicate emission profiles from low mass protostellar disks in the Orion Nebula evidence for growth and thermal processing of grains
The Astrophysical Journal, 2006Co-Authors: R Y Shuping, Marc Kassis, M Morris, Nathan Smith, John BallyAbstract:We present 8-13 μm low-resolution spectra (R ≈ 100) of eight low-mass protostellar objects ("proplyds") in the Orion Nebula using the Long Wavelength Spectrometer at the W. M. Keck Observatory. All but one of the sources in our sample show strong circumstellar silicate emission, with profiles that are qualitatively similar to those seen in some T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars. The silicate profile in all cases is significantly flattened compared with the profile for typical interstellar dust, suggesting that the dominant emitting grains are significantly larger than those found in the interstellar medium. The 11.3-to-9.8 μm flux ratio—often used as an indicator of grain growth—is in the 0.8-1.0 range for all of our targets, indicating that the typical grain size is around a few microns in the surface layers of the attendant circumstellar disk for each object. Furthermore, the silicate profiles show some evidence of crystalline features, as seen in other young stellar objects. The results of our analysis show that the grains in the photoevaporating protostellar disks of Orion have undergone significant growth and perhaps some annealing, suggesting that grain evolution for these objects is not qualitatively different from other young stellar objects.
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silicate emission profiles from low mass protostellar disks in the Orion Nebula evidence for growth and thermal processing of grains
arXiv: Astrophysics, 2006Co-Authors: R Y Shuping, Marc Kassis, M Morris, Nathan Smith, John BallyAbstract:We present 8--13 micron low resolution spectra (R~100) of 8 low-mass protostellar objects ("proplyds") in the Orion Nebula using the Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) at the W. M. Keck Observatory. All but one of the sources in our sample show strong circumstellar silicate emission, with profiles that are qualitatively similar to those seen in some T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars. The silicate profile in all cases is significantly flattened compared to the profile for typical interstellar dust, suggesting that the dominant emitting grains are significantly larger than those found in the interstellar medium. The 11.3-to-9.8 micron flux ratio--often used as an indicator of grain growth--is in the 0.8 to 1.0 range for all of our targets, indicating that the typical grain size is around a few microns in the surface layers of the attendant circumstellar disk for each object. Furthermore, the silicate profiles show some evidence of crystalline features, as seen in other young stellar objects. The results of our analysis show that the grains in the photoevaporating protostellar disks of Orion have undergone significant growth and perhaps some annealing, suggesting that grain evolution for these objects is not qualitatively different from other young stellar objects.
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disks microjets windblown bubbles and outflows in the Orion Nebula
The Astronomical Journal, 2000Co-Authors: John Bally, C R Odell, M J MccaughreanAbstract:New deep narrowband images of the Orion Nebula obtained with WFPC2 on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and spectra taken with the HIRES spectrometer at the Keck Observatory are presented. We report eight new circumstellar disks seen in silhouette against the background Nebular light and about 30 dark disks embedded within the bright proplyds rimmed by ionization fronts. Deep narrowband λ6300 A images reveal skins of glowing [O I] emission associated with several disks embedded within bright proplyds. [O I] emission also surrounds one dark disk not surrounded by an ionization front; this object may be embedded within the photon-dominated, mostly neutral region behind the ionization front of the Orion Nebula. The intensity and morphology of the [O I] emission provides support for the photon-dominated–region models of externally irradiated circumstellar disks in which soft UV powers photoablation of the disk surface. Dozens of outflows powered by young stars have been discovered on the new images. More than 20 stellar jets emerge from the externally irradiated circumstellar disks or their associated young stars embedded within the Nebula. Most are one-sided (monopolar) subarcsecond-scale microjets, too small to be seen on ground-based images against the bright background Nebular light. Additionally, wide-angle winds from 10 young stars in the outskirts of the Nebula power large-scale bow shocks facing the Trapezium OB stars. These shocks may be produced by wind-wind interactions where the T-Tauri winds interact with the outflow of plasma from the core of M42. The largest such structure, associated with the star LL Ori, contains a number of compact high–proper-motion clumps moving almost tangentially to the bow shock. The new data are combined with older HST images to determine proper motions for many Nebular features. Neither the LL Ori type bow shocks in the outskirts of the Nebula nor the Hα + [O III] arcs that surround many proplyds near the Trapezium show measurable proper motions and are therefore stationary structures. However, most other bow-shaped features not centered on young stars exhibit large proper motions, with velocities ranging from 50 to 300 km s-1. The sources of many of these moving features remain unknown. The proper-motion survey of the Nebular core reveals the presence of about a dozen new large-scale (>0.1 pc) outflow complexes. Many of these new outflows originate from the vicinity of the high-luminosity OMC-1S infrared and submillimeter source complex located southwest of the Trapezium. These supersonic features provide evidence that stellar outflows inject large amounts of kinetic energy into the Nebula. However, a quantitative analysis indicates that their total power is small compared with the power in the plasma flowing away from the main Nebular ionization front.
C R Odell - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the nature and frequency of outflows from stars in the central Orion Nebula cluster
The Astronomical Journal, 2015Co-Authors: C R Odell, M Peimbert, G J Ferland, W J Henney, Ma T Garciadiaz, R H RubinAbstract:Recent Hubble Space Telescope images have allowed the determination with unprecedented accuracy of motions and changes of shocks within the inner Orion Nebula. These originate from collimated outflows from very young stars, some within the ionized portion of the Nebula and others within the host molecular cloud. We have doubled the number of Herbig-Haro objects known within the inner Orion Nebula. We find that the best-known Herbig-Haro shocks originate from a relatively few stars, with the optically visible X-ray source COUP 666 driving many of them. While some isolated shocks are driven by single collimated outflows, many groups of shocks are the result of a single stellar source having jets oriented in multiple directions at similar times. This explains the feature that shocks aligned in opposite directions in the plane of the sky are usually blue shifted because the redshifted outflows pass into the optically thick Photon Dominated Region behind the Nebula. There are two regions from which optical outflows originate for which there are no candidate sources in the SIMBAD data base.
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spectrophotometry of the huygens region of the Orion Nebula the extended Orion Nebula and m 43 scattered light systematically distorts conditions derived from emission lines
The Astronomical Journal, 2010Co-Authors: C R Odell, Jessica A HarrisAbstract:We report on medium resolution spectrophotometry of the Orion Nebula region, including for the first time the Extended Orion Nebula (EON) and the nearby M 43. The 49 long-slit observations were divided into 99 smaller samples, which have allowed determinations of the amount of extinction, extinction-corrected Hβ surface brightness, electron temperatures (from [S II], [N II], and [O III]), and electron densities (from [S II] and [Cl III]) throughout much of this complex region. We verify an earlier conclusion from a radio/optical study that beyond about 5' from θ1Ori C local emission begins to be contaminated by scattering of light from the much brighter central Huygens region of M 42, and this scattered light component becomes dominant at large distances. This contamination means that the derived properties for the outer regions are not accurate. From comparison of the light from the dominant star in M 43 with the continuum of that Nebula (which is almost entirely scattered starlight), it is determined that scattered light is enhanced in the blue, which can lead to observed Balmer line ratios that are theoretically impossible and erroneous electron temperatures. This blue scattering of emission lines is important even in the Huygens region because it means that at anything except very high spectroscopic resolution the observed lines are a blend of the original and scattered light, with shorter wavelength lines being artificially enhanced. This can lead to overestimates of the electron temperatures derived from the Nebular and auroral line ratios of forbidden lines. This phenomenon is probably applicable to many other H II regions. We have been able to use extinction-insensitive line ratios, the extinction-corrected surface brightness in Hβ, and the equivalent width of the continuum to create for the first time a three-dimensional model of the entire M 42, EON, and M 43 region. This is an irregular concave blister of ionized gas bounded on the outside by apparent walls where the ionization front has curved almost to the direction of the observer. M 43 is seen to be shielded from illumination by θ1Ori C by the northeast portion of the wall bounding M 42.
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spectrophotometry of the huygens region of the Orion Nebula the extended Orion Nebula and m 43 scattered light systematically distorts conditions derived from emission lines
arXiv: Astrophysics of Galaxies, 2010Co-Authors: C R Odell, Jessica A HarrisAbstract:We report on medium resolution spectrophotometry of the Orion Nebula region, including for the first time the Extended Orion Nebula and the nearby M~43. The 49 long slit observations were divided into 99 smaller samples, which have allowed determinations of the amount of extinction, extinction corrected \Hbeta\ surface brightness, electron temperatures (from [S~II], [N~II], and [O~III]), and electron densities (from [S~II] and [Cl~III]) throughout much of this complex region. We verify an earlier conclusion from a radio/optical study that beyond about 5\arcmin\ from \ori\ local emission begins to be contaminated by scattering of light from the much brighter central Huygens Region of M~42 and this scattered light component becomes dominant at large distances. This contamination means that the derived properties for the outer regions are not accurate. From comparison of the light from the dominant star in M~43 with the continuum of that Nebula (which is almost entirely scattered star light) it is determined that scattered light is enhanced in the blue, which can lead to observed Balmer line ratios that are theoretically impossible and erroneous electron temperatures. This blue scattering of emission-lines is important even in the Huygens Region because it means that at anything except very high spectroscopic resolution the observed lines are a blend of the original and scattered light, with shorter wavelength lines being artificially enhanced. This can lead to over-estimates of the electron temperatures derived from the Nebular and auroral line ratios of forbidden lines. This phenomenon is probably applicable to many other H~II regions.
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fine scale temperature fluctuations in the Orion Nebula and the t2 problem
The Astronomical Journal, 2003Co-Authors: C R Odell, M Peimbert, A PeimbertAbstract:We present a high spatial resolution map of the columnar electron temperature (Tc) of a region to the southwest of the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula. This map was derived from Hubble Space Telescope images that isolated the primary lines of H I for determination of the local extinction and of the [O III] lines for determination of Tc. Although there is no statistically significant variation of Tc with distance from the dominant ionizing star, θ1 Ori C, we find small-scale variations in the plane of the sky down to a few arcseconds, which are compatible with the variations inferred from comparing the value of Te derived from forbidden and recombination lines, commonly known as the t2 problem. We present other evidence for fine-scale variations in conditions in the Nebula, these being variations in the surface brightness of the Nebula, fluctuations in radial velocities, and ionization changes. From our Tc map and other considerations we estimate that t2 = 0.028 ± 0.006 for the Orion Nebula. Shadowed regions behind clumps close to the ionization front can make a significant contribution to the observed temperature fluctuations, but they cannot account for the t2 values inferred from several methods of temperature determination. It is shown that an anomalous broadening of Nebular emission lines appears to have the same sense of correlation as the temperature anomalies, although a causal link is not obvious.
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fine scale temperature fluctuations in the the Orion Nebula and the t 2 problem
arXiv: Astrophysics, 2003Co-Authors: C R Odell, M Peimbert, A PeimbertAbstract:We present a high spatial resolution map of the columnar electron temperature (Tc) of a region to the south west of the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula. This map was derived from Hubble Space Telescope images that isolated the primary lines of HI for determination of the local extinction and of the OIII lines for determination of Tc. Although there is no statistically significant variation of Tc with distance from the dominant ionizing star theta1-Ori-C, we find small scale variations in the plane of the sky down to a few arcseconds that are compatible with the variations inferred from comparing the value of Te derived from forbidden and recombination lines, commonly known as the t^2 problem. We present other evidence for fine scale variations in conditions in the Nebula, these being variations in the surface brightness of the the Nebula, fluctuations in radial velocities, and ionization changes. From our Tc map and other considerations we estimate that t^2=0.028 +-0.006 for the Orion Nebula. Shadowed regions behind clumps close to the ionization front can make a significant contribution to the observed temperature fluctuations, but they cannot account for the t^2 values inferred from several methods of temperature determination. It is shown that an anomalous broadening of Nebular emission lines appears to have the same sense of correlation as the temperature anomalies, although a causal link is not obvious.
Lynne A Hillenbrand - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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HST Survey of the Orion Nebula Cluster in the H2O 1.4 μm Absorption Band. I. A Census of Substellar and Planetary-mass Objects
The Astrophysical Journal, 2020Co-Authors: M Robberto, Lynne A Hillenbrand, Mario Gennaro, Maria Giulia Ubeira Gabellini, Camilla Pacifici, Leonardo Ubeda, Morten Andersen, Travis Barman, Andrea Bellini, Nicola Da RioAbstract:In order to obtain a complete census of the stellar and substellar population, down to a few MJup in the ∼1 Myr old Orion Nebula Cluster, we used the infrared channel of the Wide Field Camera 3 of the Hubble Space Telescope with the F139M and F130N filters. These bandpasses correspond to the 1.4 μm H2O absorption feature and an adjacent line-free continuum region. Out of 4504 detected sources, 3352 (about 75%) appear fainter than m 130 = 14 (Vega mag) in the F130N filter, a brightness corresponding to the hydrogen-burning limit mass (M ≃ 0.072 M⊙) at ∼1 Myr. Of these, however, only 742 sources have a negative F130M-F139N color index, indicative of the presence of H2O vapor in absorption, and can therefore be classified as bona fide M and L dwarfs, with effective temperatures T ≲ 2850 K at an assumed 1 Myr cluster age. On our color-magnitude diagram (CMD), this population of sources with H2O absorption appears clearly distinct from the larger background population of highly reddened stars and galaxies with positive F130M-F139N color index and can be traced down to the sensitivity limit of our survey, m 130 ≃ 21.5, corresponding to a 1 Myr old ≃3 MJup planetary-mass object under about 2 mag of visual extinction. Theoretical models of the BT-Settl family predicting substellar isochrones of 1, 2, and 3 Myr down to ∼1 MJup fail to reproduce the observed H2O color index at M ≲ 20 MJup. We perform a Bayesian analysis to determine extinction, mass, and effective temperature of each substellar member of our sample, together with its membership probability.
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hst astrometry in the Orion Nebula cluster census of low mass runaways
arXiv: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics, 2020Co-Authors: I Platais, Lynne A Hillenbrand, M Robberto, A Bellini, Vera Kozhurinaplatais, Mario Gennaro, G Strampelli, Selma E De Mink, David R SoderblomAbstract:We present a catalog of high-precision proper motions in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), based on Treasury Program observations with the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST) ACS/WFC camera. Our catalog contains 2,454 objects in the magnitude range of $14.2
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the initial mass function of the Orion Nebula cluster across the h burning limit
The Astrophysical Journal, 2012Co-Authors: N Da Rio, Lynne A Hillenbrand, M Robberto, Th Henning, Keivan G StassunAbstract:We present a new census of the Orion Nebula Cluster over a large field of view (≳30' × 30'), significantly increasing the known population of stellar and substellar cluster members with precisely determined properties. We develop and exploit a technique to determine stellar effective temperatures from optical colors, nearly doubling the previously available number of objects with effective temperature determinations in this benchmark cluster. Our technique utilizes colors from deep photometry in the I band and in two medium-band filters at λ ~ 753 and 770 nm, which accurately measure the depth of a molecular feature present in the spectra of cool stars. From these colors we can derive effective temperatures with a precision corresponding to better than one-half spectral subtype, and importantly this precision is independent of the extinction to the individual stars. Also, because this technique utilizes only photometry redward of 750 nm, the results are only mildly sensitive to optical veiling produced by accretion. Completing our census with previously available data, we place some 1750 sources in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and assign masses and ages down to 0.02 solar masses. At faint luminosities, we detect a large population of background sources which is easily separated in our photometry from the bona fide cluster members. The resulting initial mass function of the cluster has good completeness well into the substellar mass range, and we find that it declines steeply with decreasing mass. This suggests a deficiency of newly formed brown dwarfs in the cluster compared to the Galactic disk population.
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x rays in the Orion Nebula cluster constraints on the origins of magnetic activity in pre main sequence stars
The Astrophysical Journal, 2003Co-Authors: Eric D Feigelson, Lynne A Hillenbrand, James A Gaffney, G P Garmire, L K TownsleyAbstract:A recent observation of the Orion Nebula Cluster with the ACIS instrument on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory detected 1075 sources, 525 of which are pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars with measured bulk properties such as bolometric luminosities, masses, ages, and disk indicators. Nearly half of these stars have photometrically measured rotational periods. This provides a uniquely large and well-defined sample to study the dependence of magnetic activity on bulk properties for stars descending the Hayashi tracks. The following results are obtained: (1) X-ray luminosities Lt in the 0.5-8 keV band are strongly correlated with bolometric luminosity, with average ratio log L_t/L_(bol) = -3.8 for stars with masses 0.7 < M < 2 M_☉, an order of magnitude below the main-sequence saturation level; (2) the X-ray emission drops rapidly below this level in some stars with 2 < M < 3 M_☉; (3) the presence or absence of infrared circumstellar disks has no apparent relation to X-ray levels; and (4) X-ray luminosities exhibit a slight rise as rotational periods increase from 0.4 to 20 days. This last finding stands in dramatic contrast to the strong decline of X-ray emission with increasing period seen in main-sequence stars. The absence of a strong X-ray/rotation relationship in PMS stars, and particularly the high X-ray values seen in some very slowly rotating stars, is a clear indication that the mechanisms of magnetic field generation differ from those operating in main-sequence stars. The most promising possibility is a turbulent dynamo distributed throughout the deep convection zone, but other models, such as α-Ω dynamo with "supersaturation" or relic core fields, are not immediately excluded. The drop in magnetic activity in intermediate-mass stars may reflect the presence of a significant radiative core. The evidence does not support X-ray production in large-scale star-disk magnetic fields in T Tauri stars.
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circumstellar disks in the Orion Nebula cluster
The Astronomical Journal, 1998Co-Authors: Lynne A Hillenbrand, Stephen E. Strom, Nuria Calvet, Ian Gatley, R. B. Makidon, Michael R. Meyer, Michael K Merrill, Michael F. SkrutskieAbstract:We combine our previous optical spectroscopic and photometric analysis of ~1600 stars located in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) with our own and published near-infrared photometric surveys of the region in order to investigate the evidence for and properties of circumstellar disks. We use the near-infrared continuum excess as our primary disk diagnostic, although we also study sources with Ca II triplet emission and those designated as "proplyds." The measured near-infrared excess is influenced by (1) the presence or absence of a circumstellar disk, (2) the relative importance of disk accretion and inner disk holes, (3) the relative contrast between photospheric and disk emission, and (4) system inclination. After attempting to understand the effects of these influences, we estimate the frequency of circumstellar disks and discuss the evidence for trends in the disk frequency with stellar mass (over the mass range <0.1–50 M_⊙), stellar age (over the age range <0.1–2 Myr), and projected cluster radius (over the radial range 0–3 pc). We find that the fraction of stars retaining their inner (<0.1 AU) circumstellar disks to the present time is at least 55% and probably no more than 90%, averaged over the entire range in stellar mass and stellar age represented in the ONC and over the entire area of our survey. We find no trend in the disk fraction with stellar age, at least not over the limited age range of the cluster. We find that more massive stars are less likely to have disks, consistent with a scenario in which the evolutionary timescales are more rapid for disks surrounding more massive stars than for disks surrounding less massive stars. We also find that the disk frequency begins to decrease toward the lowest masses, although objects of all masses (including those that appear to be substellar) can have disks. We find that the disk frequency increases toward the cluster center. We then argue, using several lines of evidence, that a large fraction of the disks associated with stars in the ONC are accretion disks. The observed trends with stellar age, stellar mass, and projected cluster radius in the disk frequency may, in fact, be driven primarily by trends in the disk accretion properties. From the magnitude of the near-infrared excess above that expected from pure irradiation disks, we find an accretion disk fraction among the stars identified as having disks of 61%–88%. In addition, approximately 20% of the stars in our optical spectroscopic sample show broad (several hundred km s^(-1) FWHM) Ca II emission lines, which are features often associated with accretion disk/wind phenomena; another 50% of the sample have Ca II lines that (at our spectral resolution) are "filled in," indicating an independently derived accretion disk frequency of ~70%. Finally, we discuss the near-infrared and optical emission-line properties of that portion of our sample identified from Hubble Space Telescope imaging as having a dark silhouette or an externally ionized structure. This sample, proposed in the literature to have accretion disks, appears to be no different in terms of its stellar or circumstellar properties from the rest of the ONC population. The only feature distinguishing these objects from their ONC siblings thus may be their current (but short-lived) proximity to the massive stars near the cluster center.
Robert D Mathieu - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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discovery of par 1802 as a low mass pre main sequence eclipsing binary in the Orion star forming region
The Astrophysical Journal, 2008Co-Authors: P A Cargile, Keivan G Stassun, Robert D MathieuAbstract:We report the discovery of a pre-main-sequence (PMS), low-mass, double-lined, spectroscopic, eclipsing binary in the Orion star-forming region. We present our observations, including radial velocities derived from optical high-resolution spectroscopy, and present an orbit solution that permits the determination of precise empirical masses for both components of the system. We find that Par 1802 is composed of two equal-mass ( -->0.39 ± 0.03, -->0.40 ± 0.03 M☉) stars in a circular, 4.7 day orbit. There is strong evidence, such as the system exhibiting strong Li lines and a center-of-mass velocity consistent with cluster membership, that this system is a member of the Orion star-forming region and quite possibly the Orion Nebula Cluster, and therefore has an age of only a few million years. As there are currently only a few empirical mass and radius measurements for low-mass, PMS stars, this system presents an interesting test for the predictions of current theoretical models of PMS stellar evolution.
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discovery of par 1802 as a low mass pre main sequence eclipsing binary in the Orion star forming region
arXiv: Astrophysics, 2007Co-Authors: P A Cargile, Keivan G Stassun, Robert D MathieuAbstract:We report the discovery of a pre-main-sequence, low-mass, double-lined, spectroscopic, eclipsing binary in the Orion star-forming region. We present our observations including radial velocities derived from optical high-resolution spectroscopy, and present an orbit solution that permits the determination of precise empirical masses for both components of the system. We measure that Par 1802 is composed of two equal mass (0.39+-0.03, 0.40+-0.03 Msun) stars in a circular, 4.7 day orbit. There is strong evidence, such as the system exhibiting strong Li lines and a center-of-mass velocity consistent with cluster membership, that this system is a member of the Orion star-forming region and quite possibly the Orion Nebula Cluster, and therefore has an age of only a few million years. As there are currently only a few empirical mass and radius measurements for low-mass, PMS stars, this system presents an interesting test for the predictions of current theoretical models of pre-main sequence stellar evolution.
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the rotation period distribution of pre main sequence stars in and around the Orion Nebula
The Astronomical Journal, 1999Co-Authors: Keivan G Stassun, Robert D Mathieu, Tsevi Mazeh, F J VrbaAbstract:We report rotation periods for 254 stars in an area 40' × 80' centered on the Orion Nebula. We show that these stars are likely members of the young (~106 yr) Orion OBIc/d association. The rotation period distribution we determine, which is sensitive to periods 0.1 < P < 8 days, shows a sharp cutoff for periods P < 0.5 days, corresponding to breakup velocity for these stars. Above 0.5 days the distribution is consistent with a uniform distribution; we do not find evidence for a gap of periods at 4–5 days. We find signatures of active accretion among stars at all periods; active accretion does not occur preferentially among slow rotators in our sample. We find no correlation between rotation period and near-IR signatures of circumstellar disks. In addition, we show that the distribution of v sin i among stars in our sample bears striking resemblance to that of low-mass Pleiades stars. We discuss the implications of our findings for the evolution of stellar angular momentum during the pre–main-sequence phase. We argue that all stars in our sample must still deplete angular momentum by factors of roughly 5–10, if they are to preserve their v sin i distribution over approximately the next 100 Myr. We consider in detail whether our findings are consistent with disk-regulated stellar rotation. We do not find observational evidence that magnetic disk-locking is the dominant mechanism in angular momentum evolution during the pre–main-sequence phase.