SCYON Abstract

Received on May 14 2001

Dynamical Decay of Young Few-Body Clusters and the Origin of Isolated T Tauri Stars

Authors	M.F. Sterzik, R.H. Durisen, B.K. Pickett
Affiliation	European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile
To appear in	ASP conference series, Young Stars Near Earth: Progress and Prospects, Eds. R. Jayawardhana, T. Greene
Contact	msterzik@eso.org
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Abstract

If stars originate in transient bound clusters of moderate size, then these clusters will decay by dynamical interactions. Hard binaries form and most other, preferentially low-mass, stars are ejected. In this contribution we explore the consequences of this scenario with respect to the spatial evolution of decay products, assuming simple star formation models. The predictions of the few-body decay scenario imply a spatial and temporal segregation of low-mass single stars with high dispersion velocities and a high concentration of binary or higher order hierarchical multiple systems having low common proper motions. This scenario also predicts the frequent abundance of (single) brown dwarfs in the field.