The discovery of a low-mass, pre-main-sequence stellar association around γ Velorum |
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| Authors: | M Pozzo R D Jeffries T Naylor E J Totten † S Harmer‡ M Kenyon§ |
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| Institution: | Department of Physics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG |
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| Abstract: | We report the serendipitous discovery of a population of low-mass, pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars in the direction of the Wolf–Rayet/O-star binary system γ 2 Vel and the Vela OB2 association. We argue that γ 2 Vel and the low-mass stars are truly associated and approximately coeval, and that both are at distances between 360 and 490 pc, disagreeing at the 2 σ level with the recent Hipparcos parallax of γ 2 Vel, but consistent with older distance estimates. Our results clearly have implications for the physical parameters of the γ 2 Vel system, but also offer an exciting opportunity to investigate the influence of high-mass stars on the mass function and circumstellar disc lifetimes of their lower mass PMS siblings. |
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| Keywords: | stars: pre-main-sequence stars: Wolf–Rayet X-rays: stars |
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