We present an analysis of K2 light curves (LCs) for candidate members of the young Upper Sco (USco) association $\sim$8 Myr) and the neighboring Rho Oph embedded cluster ($\sim$1 Myr). We establish $\sim$1300 stars as probable members, $\sim$80\% of which are periodic. The phased LCs have a variety of shapes which can be attributed to physical causes ranging from stellar pulsation and stellar rotation to disk-related phenomena. We identify and discuss a number of observed behaviors. The periods are $\sim$0.2-30 days with a peak near 2 days and the rapid period end nearing break-up velocity. M stars in the young USco region rotate systematically faster than GK stars, a pattern also present in K2 data for the older Pleiades and Praesepe systems. At higher masses (types FGK), the well-defined period-color relationship for slowly rotating stars seen in the Pleiades and Praesepe is not yet present in USco. Circumstellar disks are present predominantly among the more slowly rotating Ms in USco, with few disks in the sub-day rotators. However, M dwarfs with disks rotate faster on average than FGK systems with disks. For four of these disked Ms, we provide direct evidence for disk-locking based on the K2 LC morphologies. Our preliminary analysis shows a relatively mass-independent spin-up by a factor of $\sim$3.5 between USco and the Pleiades, then mass-dependent spin-down between Pleiades and Praesepe.
We used the Immersion GRating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) to determine fundamental parameters for 61 K- and M-type young stellar objects (YSOs) located in the Ophiuchus and Upper Scorpius star-forming regions. We employed synthetic spectra and a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach to fit specific K-band spectral regions and determine the photospheric temperature ($T_{\rm eff}$), surface gravity ($\log$ g), magnetic field strength (B), projected rotational velocity ($v \sin i$), and K-band veiling ($r_{\rm K}$). We determined B for $\sim$46% of our sample. Stellar parameters were compared to t…
Context: A rich population of low-mass brown dwarfs and isolated planetary mass objects has been reported recently in the Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus star forming complex. Aims: We investigate the membership, nature and properties of 17 of these isolated planetary mass candidates using low-resolution near-infrared spectra. Methods: We investigate the membership by looking for evidences of youth using four diagnostics: the slope of the continuum between the J and Ks band, the Hcont and TLI-g gravity sensitive indices, and by comparing the spectra to young and field (old) M and L-dwarf standard…
The formation of spectroscopic binaries (SB) may be a natural byproduct of star formation. The early dynamical evolution of multiple stellar systems after the initial fragmentation of molecular clouds leaves characteristic imprints on the properties of young, multiple stars. The discovery and the characterization of the youngest SB will allow us to infer the mechanisms and timescales involved in their formation. Our work aims to find spectroscopic companions around young stellar objects (YSO). We present a near-IR high-resolution (R ~ 60000) multi-epoch radial velocity survey of 7 YSO in the s…
We present the results of an optical photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy campaign for a modest sample of X-ray selected stars in the Chamaeleon and Rho Ophiuchus star forming regions. With R~50000 optical spectra, we establish kinematic membership of the parent association and confirm stellar youth for each star in our sample. With the acquisition of new standardized BVIc photometry, in concert with near-infrared data from the literature, we derive age and mass from stellar positions in model-dependent Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams. We compare isochronal ages derived using colour-depend…
We report the results of a study of archival SuperWASP light curves for stars in Scorpius-Centaurus (Sco-Cen), the nearest OB association. We use SuperWASP time-series photometry to extract rotation periods for 189 candidate members of the Sco-Cen complex, and verify that 162 of those are members of the classic Sco-Cen subgroups of Upper Scorpius (US), Upper Centaurus-Lupus (UCL), and Lower Centaurus-Crux (LCC). This study provides the first measurements of rotation periods explicitly for large samples of pre-main sequence (pre-MS) stars spanning the UCL and LCC subgroups. Our final sample of …
We conduct a multiplicity survey of members of the rho Ophiuchus cloud complex with high resolution imaging to characterize the multiple star population of this nearby star forming region and investigate the relation between stellar multiplicity and star and planet formation. Our aperture masking survey reveals the presence of 5 new stellar companions beyond the reach of previous studies, but does not result in the detection of any new substellar companions. We find that 43+/-6% of the 114 stars in our survey have stellar mass companions between 1.3-780AU, while 7 (+8 -5)% host brown dwarf com…
We present detailed modeling of the spatial distributions of gas and dust in 57 circumstellar disks in the Upper Scorpius OB Association observed with ALMA at sub-millimeter wavelengths. We fit power-law models to the dust surface density and CO $J$ = 3-2 surface brightness to measure the radial extent of dust and gas in these disks. We found that these disks are extremely compact: the 25 highest signal-to-noise disks have a median dust outer radius of 21 au, assuming an $R^{-1}$ dust surface density profile. Our lack of CO detections in the majority of our sample is consistent with these smal…
Anomalies among the daughter nuclei of the extinct short-lived radionuclides (SLRs) in the calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) indicate that the Solar System must have been born near a source of the SLRs so that they could be incorporated before they decayed away. $γ$-rays from one such living SLR, $^{26}$Al, are detected in only a few nearby star-forming regions. Here we employ multi-wavelength observations to demonstrate that one such region, Ophiuchus, containing many pre-stellar cores that may serve as analogs for the emerging Solar System, is inundated with $^{26}$Al from the neighbor…
We present the results of ALMA band 7 observations of dust and CO gas in the disks around 7 objects with spectral types ranging between M5.5 and M7.5 in Upper Scorpius OB1, and one M3 star in Ophiuchus. We detect unresolved continuum emission in all but one source, and the $^{12}$CO J=3-2 line in two sources. We constrain the dust and gas content of these systems using a grid of models calculated with the radiative transfer code MCFOST, and find disk dust masses between 0.1 and 1 M$_\oplus$, suggesting that the stellar mass / disk mass correlation can be extrapolated for brown dwarfs with mass…
Spatially resolving the orbits of double-lined spectroscopic binaries provides a way to measure the dynamical masses of the component stars. At the distances to the nearest star forming regions, high angular resolution techniques are required to resolve these short period systems. In this paper, I provide an overview of the few low-mass pre-main-sequence spectroscopic binaries that have been resolved thus far using long-baseline optical/infrared interferometers. I also compiled a list of known spectroscopic binaries in nearby star forming regions (Taurus, Orion, Ophiuchus, Scorpius-Centaurus, …
The nature and origin of free-floating planets (FFPs) are still largely unconstrained because of a lack of large homogeneous samples to enable a statistical analysis of their properties. So far, most FFPs have been discovered using indirect methods; microlensing surveys have proved particularly successful to detect these objects down to a few Earth masses. However, the ephemeral nature of microlensing events prevents any follow-up observations and individual characterization. Several studies have identified FFPs in young stellar clusters and the Galactic field but their samples are small or he…
We have performed a survey for new members of the Ophiuchus cloud complex using high-precision astrometry from the second data release of Gaia, proper motions measured with multi-epoch images from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and color-magnitude diagrams constructed with photometry from various sources. Through spectroscopy of candidates selected with those data, we have identified 155 new young stars. Based on available measurements of kinematics, we classify 102, 47, and six of those stars as members of Ophiuchus, Upper Sco, and other populations in Sco-Cen, respectively. We have also assess…
We present the design and implementation of a medium-band near-IR filter tailored for detecting low-mass stars and brown dwarfs from the summit of Maunakea. The W-band filter is centered at 1.45 micron with a bandpass width of 6%, designed to measure the depth of the H2O water absorption prominent in objects with spectral types of M6 and later. When combined with standard J- and H-band photometry, the W-band filter is designed to determine spectral types to $\approx$1.4 subtypes for late-M and L dwarfs, largely independent of surface gravity and reddening. This filter's primary application is …
We have completed an optical spectroscopic survey of an unbiased, extinction-limited sample of candidate young stars covering 1.3 square degrees of the Rho Ophiuchi star forming region. While infrared, X-ray, and optical surveys of the cloud have identified many young stellar objects (YSOs), these surveys are biased towards particular stages of stellar evolution and are not optimal for studies of the disk frequency and initial mass function.We have obtained over 300 optical spectra to help identify 135 association members based on the presence of H-alpha in emission, lithium absorption, X-ray …
Disk fraction among free-floating planetary-mass objects in Upper Scorpius
Univ. de Bordeaux(波尔多大学);Institut universitaire de France (IUF)(法国大学学院);Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. de Bordeaux, CNRS(波尔多大学 Astrophysics 实验室,CNRS);Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias(加那利天体物理研究所);Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS(萨克雷大学,巴黎西岱大学,CEA,CNRS);Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)(西班牙国立远程教育大学);Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA(天体生物学中心,CSIC-INTA);The University of Tokyo(东京大学);Astrobiology Center(天体生物学中心)
In recent years a new class of Young Stellar Object has been defined, referred to as dippers, where large transient drops in flux are observed. These dips are too large to be attributed to stellar variability, last from hours to days and can reduce the flux of a star by 10-50\%. This variability has been attributed to occultations by warps or accretion columns near the inner edge of circumstellar disks. Here we present 95 dippers in the Upper Scorpius association and $ρ$ Ophiuchus cloud complex found in K2 Campaign 2 data using supervised machine learning with a Random Forest classifier. We al…
We present new ATCA observations at 3.3 mm of 27 young stellar objects in the rho-Oph young cluster. 25 of these sources have been detected. We analyze the sub-millimeter and millimeter SED for a subsample of 17 isolated class II protoplanetary disks and derive constraints on the grain growth and total dust mass in the disk outer regions. All the disks in our sample show a mm slope of the SED which is significantly shallower than the one observed for the ISM at these long wavelengths. This indicates that 1) class II disks in Ophiuchus host grains grown to mm/cm-sizes in their outer regions, 2)…
We present measures for 10 pairs in the constellation of Scorpius using a C14 telescope, Lucky Imaging, and the Reduc software. The separations of Alpha Centauri AB, as determined from the orbital elements of Pourbaix and Boffin (2016), were used as an image scale and position angle calibrator. Our internal uncertainties are ~0.06 arcsec in rho and ~0.06 degree in PA. There is excellent agreement with historic data extrapolated to epoch of observation (~2018.53), and micro-arcsecond positions from the GAIA database where the differences are ~0.05 arcsec in rho and ~0.15 degrees in PA. In addit…
We present the largest sample of brown dwarf (BD) protoplanetary disk spectral energy distributions modeled to date. We compile 49 objects with ALMA observations from four star-forming regions: $ρ$ Ophiuchus, Taurus, Lupus, and Upper Scorpius. Studying multiple regions with various ages enables us to probe disk evolution over time. Specifically, from our models we obtain values for dust grain sizes, dust settling, and disk mass; we compare how each of these parameters vary between the regions. We find that disk mass decreases with age. We also find evidence of disk evolution (i.e., grain growt…
The discovery of close in, giant planets (hot Jupiters) with orbital angular momentum vectors misaligned with respect to the rotation axis of their host stars presents problems for planet formation theories in which planets form in discs with angular momentum vectors aligned with that of the star. Violent, high eccentricity migration mechanisms purported to elevate planetary orbits above the natal disc plane predict populations of proto-hot Jupiters which have not been observed with Kepler. Alternative theories invoking primordial star-disc misalignments have recently received more attention. …
The $K2$ Mission has photometrically monitored thousands of stars at high precision and cadence in a series of $\sim$80-day campaigns focused on sections of the ecliptic plane. During its second campaign, $K2$ targeted over 1000 young stellar objects (YSOs) in the $\sim$1-3 Myr $ρ$ Ophiuchus and 5-10 Myr Upper Scorpius regions. From this set, we have carefully vetted photometry from {\em WISE} and {\em Spitzer} to identify those YSOs with infrared excess indicative of primordial circumstellar disks. We present here the resulting comprehensive sample of 288 young disk-bearing stars from B throu…
We present the results of a submillimeter interferometric survey of circumstellar disks in the Trapezium Cluster of Orion. We observed the 880 micron continuum emission from 55 disks using the Submillimeter Array, and detected 28 disks above 3sigma significance with fluxes between 6-70 mJy and rms noise between 0.7-5.3 mJy. Dust masses and upper limits are derived from the submillimeter excess above free-free emission extrapolated from longer wavelength observations. Above our completeness limit of 0.0084 solar masses, the disk mass distribution is similar to that of Class II disks in Taurus-A…
(Abridged) We present a study of the disk population in L1688, the densest and youngest region in Ophiuchus, and we compare it with other nearby regions of different age, namely Lupus, Chamaeleon I, Corona Australis, Taurus and Upper Scorpius. We select our L1688 sample using a combination of criteria (ALMA data, Gaia, optical/near-IR spectroscopy) and determine stellar and disk properties, specifically stellar mass (Mstar), average population age, mass accretion rate (Macc) and disk dust mass (Mdust). a) In L1688 the relations between Macc and Mstar, Mdust and Mstar, and Macc and Mdust have a…
We present ten young ($\lesssim$10 Myr) late-K and M dwarf stars observed in K2 Campaign 2 that host protoplanetary disks and exhibit quasi-periodic or aperiodic dimming events. Their optical light curves show $\sim$10-20 dips in flux over the 80-day observing campaign with durations of $\sim$0.5-2 days and depths of up to $\sim$40%. These stars are all members of the $ρ$ Ophiuchus ($\sim$1 Myr) or Upper Scorpius ($\sim$10 Myr) star-forming regions. To investigate the nature of these "dippers" we obtained: optical and near-infrared spectra to determine stellar properties and identify accretion…
Context: Rotationally supported disks are critical in the star formation process. The questions of when do they form and what factors influence or hinder their formation have been studied but are largely unanswered. Observations of early stage YSOs are needed to probe disk formation. Aims: VLA1623 is a triple non-coeval protostellar system, with a weak magnetic field perpendicular to the outflow, whose Class 0 component, VLA1623A, shows a disk-like structure in continuum with signatures of rotation in line emission. We aim to determine whether this structure is in part or in whole a rotational…