An X-ray survey of low-mass stars in Trumpler 16 with Chandra

TL;DR

This study uses deep Chandra X-ray observations to identify and analyze low-mass stars in the Trumpler 16 region, revealing their properties, variability, and disk presence, and comparing their X-ray activity with other star-forming regions.

Contribution

First detailed X-ray survey of low-mass stars in Trumpler 16, characterizing their properties and comparing activity levels with Orion and Cygnus OB2.

Findings

660 X-ray sources have near-IR counterparts linked to Tr16.

15% of counterparts show disk-induced excesses.

Stars of 1.5-2.5 solar masses have X-ray activity similar to Cygnus OB2.

Abstract

We identify and characterize low-mass stars in the ~3 Myr old Trumpler 16 (Tr16) region by means of a deep Chandra X-ray observation, and study their optical and near-IR properties. We compare X-ray activity of Tr16 stars with known characteristics of Orion and Cygnus OB2 stars. We analyzed a 88.4 ksec Chandra ACIS-I observation pointed at the center of Tr16. Because of diffuse X-ray emission, source detection was performed using the PWDetect code for two different energy ranges: 0.5-8.0 keV and 0.9-8.0 keV. Results were merged into a single final list. We positionally correlate X-ray sources with optical and 2MASS catalogues. Source events were extracted with the IDL-based routine ACIS-Extract. X-ray variability was characterized using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and spectra were fitted by using XSPEC. X-ray spectra of early-type, massive stars were analyzed individually. Our list of X-ray sources consists of 1035 entries, 660 of which have near-IR counterparts and are probably associated with Tr16 members. From near-IR color-color and color-magnitudes diagrams we compute individual masses of stars and their Av values. About 15% of the near-IR counterparts show disk-induced excesses. X-ray variability is found in 77 sources. X-ray emission from OB stars appear softer than the low-mass stars. The Tr16 region has a very rich population of low-mass X-ray emitting stars. An important fraction of its circumstellar disks survive the intense radiation field of its massive stars. Stars with masses 1.5-2.5 Mo display X-ray activity similar to that of stars in Cyg OB2 but much less intense than observed for Orion Nebula Cluster members.