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On the mass segregation of stars and brown dwarfs in Taurus

Parker, Richard J. ; Bouvier, Jerome ; Goodwin, Simon P. ; Moraux, Estelle ; Allison, Richard J. ; Guieu, Sylvain ; Güdel, Manuel

In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2011, vol. 412, no. 4, p. 2489-2497

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    Titel
    • On the mass segregation of stars and brown dwarfs in Taurus
    Autor
    • Parker, Richard J.. Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
    • Bouvier, Jerome. Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, Observatoire de Grenoble, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
    • Goodwin, Simon P.. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH
    • Moraux, Estelle. Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, Observatoire de Grenoble, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
    • Allison, Richard J.. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH
    • Guieu, Sylvain. European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
    • Güdel, Manuel. Department of Astronomy, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstraße 17, Vienna A-1180, Austria
    Dokumententyp
    • Postprint
    Sprache
    • Englisch
    Veröffentlicht in
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2011, vol. 412, no. 4, p. 2489-2497. Blackwell Publishing Ltd
    Andere elektronische Ausgabe
    OAI-PMH-ID
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:292381
    Summary
    We use the new minimum spanning tree (MST) method to look for mass segregation in the Taurus association. The method computes the ratio of MST lengths of any chosen subset of objects, including the most massive stars and brown dwarfs, to the MST lengths of random sets of stars and brown dwarfs in the cluster. This mass segregation ratio (ΛMSR) enables a quantitative measure of the spatial distribution of high- and low-mass stars, and brown dwarfs to be made in Taurus. We find that the most massive stars in Taurus are inversely mass segregated with ΛMSR= 0.70 ± 0.10 (ΛMSR= 1 corresponds to no mass segregation), which differs from the strong mass segregation signatures found in more dense and massive clusters such as Orion. The brown dwarfs in Taurus are not mass segregated, although we find evidence that some low-mass stars are, with an ΛMSR= 1.25 ± 0.15. Finally, we compare our results to previous measures of the spatial distribution of stars and brown dwarfs in Taurus, and briefly discuss their implications