Is the Young Star Association $\epsilon$Cha Double?

TL;DR

This study investigates the kinematics of the $psilon$ Cha young stellar association, revealing it likely comprises two groups of different ages, possibly indicating separate formation events or a recent star formation outbreak.

Contribution

The paper provides a detailed kinematic analysis of $psilon$ Cha, identifying two distinct groups with different ages and suggesting complex formation history.

Findings

The association splits into two groups with different ages.

Estimated ages are approximately 5 million and 0.2 million years.

Evidence suggests possible recent star formation within the group.

Abstract

The kinematics of the $\epsilon$ Cha young stellar association close to the Sun has been studied based on a list of candidate stars from the Dickson-Vandervelde work. The working sample consists of 26 stars with parallaxes, proper motions from the Gaia~DR3 catalog and radial velocities taken from literary sources. The orbits of the stars back to the past were constructed, and the moment when the association had a minimum spatial size was determined, as well as an analysis of the dependencies of the velocities $U,V,W$ on the coordinates $x,y,z$ was carried out. It is shown that the initial sample is divided into two parts with different kinematic properties. The first sample included 9 stars. Based on the construction of the orbits of these 9 stars, an age estimate of $t=4.9\pm0.8$ million years was obtained. An expansion coefficient in the $xz$ plane with the value $K_{xz}=135\pm19$ km/s/kpc was also found for them, on the basis of which another age estimate $t=7.2\pm1.0$ million years was obtained. The second sample included 17 stars. The construction of their orbits gave an estimate of age $t=0.2\pm0.3$ million years, and based on the gradient $\partial W/\partial z=707\pm248$ km/s/kpc, a second estimate of their age $t=1.4\pm0.5$ million years was obtained. This suggests that the $\epsilon$ Cha association either consists of two groupings of different ages, or a younger one arose as a result of a recent outbreak of star formation within a common star system. The question of the gravitational connection of the groupings has not been considered in the framework of this work.