Searching for active low-mass stars in CMa star-forming region: multi-band photometry with T80S

TL;DR

This study identifies and characterizes low-mass stars in the CMa star-forming region using multi-band photometry and Gaia data, revealing a surprisingly low disk fraction possibly due to supernova feedback.

Contribution

It combines Gaia astrometry with multi-band photometry to confirm membership and analyze accretion activity in CMa R1, providing new insights into its stellar population and disk evolution.

Findings

514 new members identified via Gaia proper motion and parallax.

Only 3% show Halpha excess, indicating low chromospheric activity.

6% of stars have disks, lower than typical for similar age regions.

Abstract

An exotic environment surrounds the young stellar groups associated with the Canis Major (CMa) OB1/R1 region, which probably was formed under feedback from at least three supernova events having occurred a few million years ago. We use astrometric data from the Gaia-DR2 to confirm the membership of the stars in CMa R1, based on proper motion and parallax, which revealed 514 new members and candidates. The mean age of 5 Myr estimated from the color-magnitude diagram characterizes the sources as likely pre-main sequence candidates. In total, a sample of 694 stars detected with the T80-South telescope was analyzed according to different color-color diagrams, which were compared with theoretical colors from evolutionary models, aiming to reveal the objects that exhibit color excess due to accretion processes. Accretion and magnetic activity were also explored on the basis of empirical flux-flux relation, such as F660 and F861 that are related to Halpha and Ca II triplet emission, respectively. A low fraction (3 percent) of the sample have Halpha excess and other colors expected for stars exhibiting chromospheric activity. The number of Class I and Class II objects, identified by the infrared (WISE) colors, indicates a disk fraction of 6 percent, which is lower than the expected for stellar clusters with similar age. A such large sample of objects associated with CMa R1 without evidences of circumstellar accretion can be interpreted as a lack of disk-bearing stars, unusual for young star-forming regions. However, this may be explained as the result of supernova events.