Spectroscopy and kinematics of low-mass members of young moving groups

Abstract

We study a target sample of 68 low-mass objects (with spectral types in the range M4.5–L1) previously selected via photometric and astrometric criteria, as possible members of five young moving groups: the Local Association (Pleiades moving group, age = 20–150 Myr), the Ursa Mayor group (Sirius supercluster, age = 300 Myr), the Hyades supercluster (age = 600 Myr), IC 2391 supercluster (age = 35–55 Myr) and the Castor moving group (age = 200 Myr). In this paper, we assess their membership by using different kinematic and spectroscopic criteria. We use high-resolution echelle spectroscopic observations of the sample to measure accurate radial velocities. Distances are calculated and compared to those of the moving group from the literature, we also calculate the kinematic Galactic components (U,V,W) of the candidate members and apply kinematic criterion of membership to each group. In addition, we measure rotational velocities (v sin i) to place further constraints on membership of kinematic members. We find that 49 targets have young disc kinematics and that 36 of them possibly belong to one of our five moving groups. From the young disc target objects, 31 have rotational velocities in agreement with them belonging to the young disc population. We also find that one of our moving group candidates, 2MASS0123−3610, is a low-mass double lined spectroscopic binary, with probable spectral types around M7.