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An unusual abundance of T Tauri stars? NIR study of the southern high-mass star-forming region RCW 34

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

H. M. de Villiers
Affiliation:
Unit for Space Physics, North West University, Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa
D. J. Van der Walt
Affiliation:
Unit for Space Physics, North West University, Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa
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Abstract

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RCW 34 is a special star-forming region with a few stars showing an infrared excess, but seems as if it has an uncommon abundance in T Tauri stars. This possibility was confirmed by (i) clustering of classical T Tauri (CTT) stars in the two-color diagram, (ii) clustering of pre-main-sequence stars in the color–magnitude diagram, as well as (iii) the significant clustering at dimensions larger than the image-frame size, indicated by the second ‘bump’ in the two-point correlation analysis. A possible explanation for the above features could be the existence of an underlying wide CTT cluster with a smaller cluster centered around the massive star. The Ks-band luminosity function (α = 0.31) of RCW 34 shows that it is indeed a region of low stellar masses with an age of about of 1 Myr. Spectroscopic confirmation of such an underlying T Tauri cluster is necessary before any definite conclusions can be reached.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010