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Session 92 - Very Young Stars, T-Tauri Stars, H-H Objects.
Oral session, Friday, January 09
Lincoln,
We have conducted the deepest (K_complete\sim12.5) K(2.2 \mum)-band spectroscopic survey (R\sim800-1200) to date of \sim500 young (\sim1-10 Myr old), low-mass (\leq0.5 M_ødot) objects in several nearby (\leq500 pc) embedded (A_V=0-50) clusters: L1495E, IC 348, NGC 1333, \rho Oph, NGC 2024 and the Trapezium Central Cluster. After developing a technique of IR spectral classification to derive spectral types and IR continuum veilings, we are placing the sources on the H-R diagram and studying the star formation history and low-mass IMFs in these clusters. In the first of the young clusters we have studied, L1495E within Taurus, we derive an IMF which turns over near 0.1-0.2 M_ødot. However, from IR imaging of the cluster core and of a control field, we conclude that the spectroscopic sample may be incomplete for faint, low-luminosity objects. If the candidate low-mass sources identified in the imaging are added to the IMF we find that the IMF does not turn over and does not agree with the Scalo (1986) field star IMF. Instead, the mass function of L1495E is roughly flat in logarithmic mass units below \sim0.4 M_ødot. A similar analysis of the IMF is currently underway with the data on the other five clusters in our sample.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: kluhman@as.arizona.edu
