Survey of H{\alpha} emission-line stars in the star-forming region IC 5070

TL;DR

This survey identifies 131 H-alpha emission-line stars in the IC 5070 star-forming region, characterizes their properties, and discusses their evolutionary status and dynamics, providing insights into young stellar populations.

Contribution

The study presents the first extensive catalog of H-alpha emission-line stars in IC 5070 using slitless spectroscopy and Gaia data, including proper motions, distances, and classifications.

Findings

Majority are young low-mass stars (<1.5 M⊙)

Most are Class II/flat spectrum sources of spectral types K to M

Approximately 20 stars are identified as non-members based on proper motion and location

Abstract

Actively accreting young stellar objects show H$\alpha$ emission line in their spectra. We present the results of survey for H$\alpha$ emission-line stars in the star-forming region IC~5070 taken with 2-m Himalyan {\it Chandra} Telescope. Based on the H$\alpha$ slitless spectroscopy data, we identified 131 emission-line stars in $\sim$ 0.29 square degrees area of the IC~5070 region. Using Gaia Early Data Release 3, we estimated the mean proper motion and parallax of the emission-line stars. We also estimated the mean distance and reddening toward the region using the emission-line stars, that are $\sim$ 833 pc and $\sim$2 mag, respectively. By examining the locations of these stars in the color-magnitude diagrams constructed using Gaia and PanSTARRS1 data, we found that a majority of the H$\alpha$ emitters are young low-mass ($<$ 1.5 $M\odot$) stars. We also compared our catalog of emission-line stars with the available young stellar catalogs and found that most of them are Class~{II}/ flat spectrum sources with the spectral type ranging from K to M. Based on the proper motion/ parallax values and locations on the color-magnitude diagrams, about 20 emission-line stars are flagged as non-members. The relative proper motion of the emission-line stars with respect to the ionizing source suggest the possibility of the `rocket effect' scenario in the remnant cloud (BRC~31).