E. Franciosini

The XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST)

(abridged:) The XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST) surveys the most populated ~5 square degrees of the Taurus star formation region, using the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory to study the thermal structure, variability, and long-term evolution of hot plasma, to investigate the magnetic dynamo, and to search for new potential members of the association. Many targets are also studied in the optical, and high-resolution X-ray grating spectroscopy has been obtained for selected bright sources. The X-ray spectra have been coherently analyzed with two different thermal models (2-component thermal model, and a continuous emission measure distribution model). We present overall correlations with fundamental stellar parameters that were derived from the previous literature. A few detections from Chandra observations have been added. The present overview paper introduces the project and provides the basic results from the X-ray analysis of all sources detected in the XEST survey.Comprehensive tables summarize the stellar properties of all targets surveyed. The survey goes deeper than previous X-ray surveys of Taurus by about an order of magnitude and for the first time systematically accesses very faint and strongly absorbed TMC objects. We find a detection rate of 85% and 98% for classical and weak-line T Tau stars (CTTS resp. WTTS), and identify about half of the surveyed protostars and brown dwarfs. Overall, 136 out of 169 surveyed stellar systems are detected. We describe an X-ray luminosity vs. mass correlation, discuss the distribution of X-ray-to-bolometric luminosity ratios, and show evidence for lower X-ray luminosities in CTTS compared to WTTS. Detailed analysis (e.g., variability, rotation-activity relations, influence of accretion on X-rays) will be discussed in a series of accompanying papers.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: radial metallicity gradients and age-metallicity relation of stars in the Milky Way disk

We study the relationship between age, metallicity, and alpha-enhancement of FGK stars in the Galactic disk. The results are based upon the analysis of high-resolution UVES spectra from the Gaia-ESO large stellar survey. We explore the limitations of the observed dataset, i.e. the accuracy of stellar parameters and the selection effects that are caused by the photometric target preselection. We find that the colour and magnitude cuts in the survey suppress old metal-rich stars and young metal-poor stars. This suppression may be as high as 97% in some regions of the age-metallicity relationship. The dataset consists of 144 stars with a wide range of ages from 0.5 Gyr to 13.5 Gyr, Galactocentric distances from 6 kpc to 9.5 kpc, and vertical distances from the plane 0 9 Gyr is not as small as advocated by some other studies. In agreement with earlier work, we find that radial abundance gradients change as a function of vertical distance from the plane. The [Mg/Fe] gradient steepens and becomes negative. In addition, we show that the inner disk is not only more alpha-rich compared to the outer disk, but also older, as traced independently by the ages and Mg abundances of stars.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: Kinematic structure in the Gamma Velorum cluster

This work was partially supported by the Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training (GREAT-ITN) Marie Curie network, funded through the European Union Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant agreement 264895 and supported by the European Union FP7 programme through ERC grant number 320360 and by the Leverhulme Trust through grant RPG-2012-541. We acknowledge the support from INAF and Ministero dell’ Istruzione, dell’ Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR) in the form of the grant “Premiale VLT 2012”. RJJ acknowledges financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.

The XMM-Newton view of stellar coronae: Coronal structure in the Castor X-ray triplet

We present results of a comprehensive X-ray investigation of the multiple stellar system Castor AB + YY Gem. The observations were obtained with the XMM - Newton observatory. We report the first spatially separated detection and identification of both Castor A and B as frequently flaring X-ray sources. Spectral modeling of the YY Gem and Castor coronal sources indicates a broad plasma distribution between 2-15 MK. Elemental abundances are found to be below solar photospheric values, with the abundance of Ne being highest (~0.7 times solar photospheric). The abundances increase during a large flare, most notably for Fe. The Ovii He-like line triplet indicates average coronal densities of the cooler plasma of a few times 10 10 cm -3 for YY Gem and Castor. The YY Gem light curve shows three deep eclipses, indicating that the coronae of both binary components are similarly active and are relatively compact. A 3-D light curve inversion shows that coronal active regions follow density scale heights compatible with spectroscopically measured temperatures. The dominant densities also agree with spectroscopic values. Most active regions are located between

FLAMES spectroscopy of low-mass stars in the young clusters

\pm 50

\sigma

degrees latitude, in agreement with findings from previous Doppler imaging. We also report the tentative detection of line broadening due to orbital motion.

Ori and

Aims. We performed a detailed membership selection and studied the accretion properties of low-mass stars in the two apparently very similar young (1–10 Myr) clusters σ Ori and λ Ori. Methods. We observed 98 and 49 low-mass (0.2–1.0 M� ) stars in σ Ori and λ Ori respectively, using the multi-object optical spectrograph FLAMES at the VLT, with the high-resolution (R ∼ 17 000) HR15N grating (6470–6790 A). We used radial velocities, Li and Hα to establish cluster membership and Hα and other optical emission lines to analyze the accretion properties of members. Results. We identified 65 and 45 members of the σ Ori and λ Ori clusters, respectively, and discovered 16 new candidate binary systems. We also measured rotational broadening for 20 stars and estimated the mass accretion rates in 25 stars of the σ Ori cluster, f

\lambda

The Gaia-ESO Survey is a large public spectroscopic survey that aims to derive radial velocities and fundamental parameters of about 10(5) Milky Way stars in the field and in clusters. Observations are carried out with the multi-object optical spectrograph FLAMES, using simultaneously the medium-resolution (R similar to 20 000) GIRAFFE spectrograph and the high-resolution (R similar to 47 000) UVES spectrograph. In this paper we describe the methods and the software used for the data reduction, the derivation of the radial velocities, and the quality control of the FLAMES-UVES spectra. Data reduction has been performed using a workflow specifically developed for this project. This workflow runs the ESO public pipeline optimizing the data reduction for the Gaia-ESO Survey, automatically performs sky subtraction, barycentric correction and normalisation, and calculates radial velocities and a first guess of the rotational velocities. The quality control is performed using the output parameters from the ESO pipeline, by a visual inspection of the spectra and by the analysis of the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectra. Using the observations of the first 18 months, specifically targets observed multiple times at different epochs, stars observed with both GIRAFFE and UVES, and observations of radial velocity standards, we estimated the precision and the accuracy of the radial velocities. The statistical error on the radial velocities is sigma similar to 0.4 km s(-1) and is mainly due to uncertainties in the zero point of the wavelength calibration. However, we found a systematic bias with respect to the GIRAFFE spectra (similar to 0.9 km s(-1)) and to the radial velocities of the standard stars (similar to 0.5 km s(-1)) retrieved from the literature. This bias will be corrected in the future data releases, when a common zero point for all the set-ups and instruments used for the survey is be established.

Ori

We present XMM-Newton observations of the young (∼2−5 Myr) cluster around the hot (O9.5V) star σ Orionis AB, aimed at obtaining a high resolution RGS spectrum of the hot star as well as EPIC imaging data for the whole field. We show that the RGS spectrum of σ Ori AB may be contaminated by weaker nearby sources which required the development of a suitable procedure to extract a clean RGS spectrum and to determine the thermal structure and wind properties of the hot star. We also report on the detection of a flare from the B2Vp star σ Ori E and we discuss whether the flare originated from the hot star itself or rather from an unseen late-type companion. Other results of this observation include: the detection of 174 X-ray sources in the field of σ Ori of which 76 are identified as cluster members, including very low-mass stars down to the substellar limit; the discovery of rotational modulation in a late-type star near σ Ori AB; no detectable line broadenings and shifts (<800 km s −1 ) in the spectrum of σ Ori AB together with a remarkable low value of the O  forbidden to intercombination line ratio and unusually high coronal abundances of CNO elements.

The Gaia-ESO survey : Processing FLAMES-UVES spectra

Context. High-resolution spectroscopic surveys of stars indicate that the Milky Way thin and thick discs follow different paths in the chemical space defined by [alpha/Fe] vs. [Fe/H], possibly suggesting different formation mechanisms for each of these structures. Aims. We investigate, using the Gaia-ESO Survey internal Data-Release 2, the properties of the double sequence of the Milky Way discs, which are defined chemically as the high-alpha and low-alpha populations. We discuss their compatibility with discs defined by other means, such as metallicity, kinematics, or positions. Methods. This investigation uses two different approaches: in velocity space, for stars located in the extended solar neighbourhood; and, in chemical space, for stars at different ranges of Galactocentric radii and heights from the Galactic mid-plane. The separation we find in velocity space allows us to investigate, using a novel approach, the extent of metallicity of each of the two chemical sequences, without making any assumption about the shape of their metallicity distribution functions. Then, using the separation in chemical space, adopting the magnesium abundance as a tracer of the alpha-elements, we characterise the spatial variation of the slopes of the [alpha/Fe] [Fe/H] sequences for the thick and thin discs and the way in which the relative proportions of the two discs change across the Galaxy. Results. We find that the thick disc, defined as the stars tracing the high-alpha sequence, extends up to super-solar metallicities ([Fe/H] approximate to + 0.2 dex), and the thin disc, defined as the stars tracing the low-alpha sequence, extends at least down to [Fe/H] approximate to 0.8 dex, with hints pointing towards even lower values. Radial and vertical gradients in alpha-abundances are found for the thin disc, with mild spatial variations in its [alpha/Fe] [Fe/H] paths, whereas for the thick disc we do not detect any spatial variations of this kind. This is in agreement with results obtained recently from other high-resolution spectroscopic surveys. Conclusions. The small variations in the spatial [alpha/Fe] [Fe/H] paths of the thin disc do not allow us to distinguish between formation models of this structure. On the other hand, the lack of radial gradients and [alpha/Fe] [Fe/H] variations for the thick disc indicate that the mechanism responsible for the mixing of metals in the young Galaxy (e.g. radial stellar migration or turbulent gaseous disc) was more efficient before the (present) thin disc started forming.