The Gould Belt Very Large Array Survey IV: The Taurus-Auriga complex

TL;DR

This study uses multi-epoch radio observations to analyze the properties of sources in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region, revealing insights into the nature of young stellar objects and their emission mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive radio survey of Taurus-Auriga, characterizing the emission types of young stars and confirming their adherence to the Güdel-Benz relation across multiple star-forming regions.

Findings

56% of young stars exhibit non-thermal radio emission.

Young stellar objects follow the Güdel-Benz relation with κ=0.03.

Most unidentified sources are likely extragalactic, with 46 potential YSOs identified.

Abstract

We present a multi-epoch radio study of the Taurus-Auriga star-forming complex made with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array at frequencies of 4.5 GHz and 7.5 GHz. We detect a total of 610 sources, 59 of which are related to young stellar objects and 18 to field stars. The properties of 56\% of the young stars are compatible with non-thermal radio emission. We also show that the radio emission of more evolved young stellar objects tends to be more non-thermal in origin and, in general, that their radio properties are compatible with those found in other star forming regions. By comparing our results with previously reported X-ray observations, we notice that young stellar objects in Taurus-Auriga follow a G\"{u}del-Benz relation with $\kappa$=0.03, as we previously suggested for other regions of star formation. In general, young stellar objects in Taurus-Auriga and in all the previous studied regions seem to follow this relation with a dispersion of $\sim1$ dex. Finally, we propose that most of the remaining sources are related with extragalactic objects but provide a list of 46 unidentified radio sources whose radio properties are compatible with a YSO nature.