Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2005-08-23
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.363:1389-1397,2005
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
10 pages, 12 figures. High resolution version with colour is available at http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/bgb/research/ . MNR
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09535.x
We have investigated the role of photometric variability in causing the apparent age spreads observed in the colour-magnitude diagrams of OB associations. We have found that the combination of binarity, photometric uncertainty and variability on timescales of a few years is not sufficient to explain the observed spread in either of the OB associations we have studied. Such effects can account for about half the observed spread in the sigma Orionis subgroup and about 1/20 of the observed spread in Cep OB3b. This rules out variability caused by stellar rotation and rotation of structures within inner accretion discs as the source of the majority of the the apparent age spreads. We also find that the variability tends to move objects parallel to isochrones in V/V-i' CMDs, and thus has little influence on apparent age spreads. We conclude that the remaining unexplained spread either reflects a true spread in the ages of the PMS objects or arises as a result of longer term variability associated with changes in accretion flow.
Burningham Ben
Jeffries Robin D.
Littlefair Stuart P.
Naylor Tim
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