We describe the serendipitous discovery of two new lithium-rich M5 members of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association (Sco-Cen). Both stars exhibit large 12 and 22 μm excesses and strong, variable Hα emission which we attribute to accretion from circumstellar discs. Such stars are thought to be incredibly rare at the ~16 Myr median age of much of Sco-Cen. The serendipitous discovery of two accreting stars hosting large quantities of circumstellar material may be indicative of a sizeable age spread in Sco-Cen, or further evidence that disc dispersal and planet formation time-scales are longer around lower-mass stars.

We have carried out an ALMA Cycle 2 survey of 15 confirmed or candidate low-mass (<0.2M⊙) members of the TW Hya Association (TWA) with the goal of detecting line emission from CO molecular gas and continuum emission from cold dust. Our targets have spectral types of M4-L0 and hence represent the extreme low end of the TWA's mass function. The survey has yielded a detection of 12CO(2–1) emission around TWA 34. This newly discovered ~10 Myr-old molecular gas disk lies just ~50pc from Earth.

The nearest, youngest groups of stars to the Sun provide important samples of age-dated stars for studying circumstellar disk evolution, imaged exoplanets, and brown dwarfs. I briefly comment on the status of the known stellar groups within 100 pc: β Pic, AB Dor, UMa, Car-Near, Tuc-Hor and β Tuc nucleus, Hyades, Col, TW Hya, Car, Coma Ber, 32 Ori, η Cha, and χ1 For. I also discuss some poorly characterized groups and “non-groups.” Grades for 2015 of Pass, Satisfactory, or Fail are assigned to the groups for the purposes of age-dating stars and brown dwarfs. I speculate that Tuc-Hor could have provided a supernova ~60 pc away ~2.2 Myr ago which showered the Earth with traces of 60Fe-bearing dust.

The Nearby Young Moving Groups sample the critical age when primordial disks around stars complete their transformation into planetary systems with associated debris. Millimeter wavelengths provide direct access to cool material in these circumstellar disks. The high angular resolution of interferometry at these long wavelengths enables resolved observations of solids in an optically thin regime, as well as the thermal, chemical, and dynamical structure of gas, if present. In this contribution, I briefly review the evolving landscape of millimeter telescopes, with emphasis on the revolutionary capabilities of the new international Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and describe pertinent early science results.

Variable mass accretion is thought to be an important aspect of protostar formation. Mid-infrared wavelength observations trace variations in accretion luminosity and thus can probe mass accretion on sub-AU scales. We present results from the Spitzer YSOVAR campaign towards Class I protostars in NGC 2264. The precise (0.02 mag) medium-cadence light curves at 3.6 and 4.5 microns show that young star variability is ubiquitous, with a variety of morphologies and time scales. A structure function analysis shows the light curves, on average, have a power-law behavior up to 30 days. The trend continues to longer timescales (years) for protostars (Class I), in contrast with the smaller brightness changes displayed by T Tauri stars (Class II). The power-law behavior suggests a stochastic process, such as turbulent mass accretion, drives the variability.

Variability has now been robustly observed in a range of L and T type field brown dwarfs, primarily at near-IR and mid-IR wavelengths. The probable cause of this variability is surface inhomogeneities in the clouds of these objects, causing a semi-periodic variability signal when combined with the rotational modulation from the 3-12 hour period expected for these objects. Variability at similar or even higher amplitudes may be expected for young brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets, which share similar Teff as field brown dwarfs, but have considerably lower surface gravities. Variability studies of these objects relative to old field objects is then a direct probe of the effects of surface gravity on atmospheric structure. Here I discuss ongoing efforts to detect variability from these young objects, both for free-floating objects and companions to stars, including preliminary results from an ongoing survey of young, low surface gravity objects with NTT SOFI.

While searches for young stellar objects (YSOs) with the Spitzer Space Telescope focused on known molecular clouds, photometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) can be used to extend the search to the entire sky. As a precursor to more expansive searches, we present results for a 100 deg2 region centered on the Canis Major clouds.

To analyze the SACY (Search for Associations Containing Young stars) survey we developed a method to find young associations and to define their high probability members. These bona fide members enable to obtain the kinematical and the physical properties of each association in a proper way. Recently we noted a concentration in the UV plane and we found a new association we are calling ASYA (All Sky Young Association) for its overall distribution in the sky with a total of 38 bonafide members and an estimated age of 110 Myr, the oldest young association found in the SACY survey. We present here its kinematical, space and Li distributions and its HR diagram.

In this paper, I investigate a possibility to detect a brown dwarf companion in a protoplanetary disk based on spectral energy distribution (SED) profile analysis. I present synthetic spectral energy distributions of protoplanetary disks with and without an embedded companion that clears a gap. The computations are performed for a star (0.8 M⊙) and a substellar companion (30 MJ) at an age of 5 Myr embedded in a protoplanetary disk, located at a distance 100 pc from the Sun. Analysis of the SED profile shape indicates that the maximum difference between the fluxes of the systems with and without the companion is ≈ 0.43 Jy at 34 μm.

We present a self-consistent, absolute isochronal age scale for young (≲ 200 Myr), nearby (≲ 100 pc) moving groups, which is consistent with recent lithium depletion boundary ages for both the β Pic and Tucana-Horologium moving groups. This age scale was derived using a set of semi-empirical pre-main-sequence model isochrones that incorporate an empirical colour-Teff relation and bolometric corrections based on the observed colours of Pleiades members, with theoretical corrections for the dependence on logg. Absolute ages for young, nearby groups are vital as these regions play a crucial role in our understanding of the early evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars, as well as providing ideal targets for direct imaging and other measurements of dusty debris discs, substellar objects and, of course, extrasolar planets.

The gas and dust rich disks around young stars are the formation sites of planets. Observations of molecular trace species have great potential as probes of the disk structures and volatile compositions that together regulate planet formation. The disk around young star TW Hya has become a template for disk molecular studies due to a combination of proximity, a simple face-on geometry and richness in volatiles. It is unclear, however, how typical the chemistry of the TW disk is. In this proceeding, we review lessons learnt from exploring the TW Hya disk chemistry, focusing on the CO snowline, and on deuterium fractionation chemistry. We compare these results with new ALMA observations toward more distant, younger disks. We find that while all disks have some chemical structures in common, there are also substantial differences between the disks, which may be due to different initial conditions, structural or chemical evolutionary stages, or a combination of all three.

X-ray observations of pre-main sequence (pre-MS) stars of M-type probe coronal emission and offer a means to investigate magnetic activity at the stellar-substellar boundary. Recent observations of main sequence (MS) stars at this boundary display a decrease in fractional X-ray luminosity (LX/Lbol) by almost two orders of magnitude for spectral types M7 and later. We investigate magnetic activity and search for a decrease in X-ray emission in the pre-MS progenitors of these MS stars. We present XMM-Newton X-ray observations and preliminary results for ~10 nearby (30-70 pc), very low mass pre-MS stars in the relatively unexplored age range of 10-30 Myr. We compare the fractional X-ray luminosities of these 10-30 Myr old stars to younger (1-3 Myr) pre-MS brown dwarfs and find no dependence on spectral type or age suggesting that X-ray activity declines at an age later than ~30 Myr in these very low-mass stars.

Fomalhaut b was long thought to shape the eccentric debris belt in the Fomalhaut system, but its orbit was found to be too eccentric for it to be the dominant belt-shaping perturber. This indicates that Fomalhaut b is Earth-sized at most and that the belt-shaping perturber, hereafter named Fomalhaut c, remains to be discovered. In addition, since its orbit more or less crosses that of Fomalhaut b, it also indicates that the current configuration of the system is transient and was reached recently. In this talk, we show that this current configuration can be explained if Fomalhaut c is Saturn- to Neptune-sized, and Fomalhaut b originates from a mean-motion resonance with Fomalhaut c.

Circumstellar disks are the sites of planet formation, and the very high incidence of extrasolar planets implies that most of them actually form planetary systems. Studying the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks can thus place important constraints on the conditions, timescales, and mechanisms associated with the planet formation process. In this review, we discuss observational results from infrared and submillimeter wavelength studies. We review disk lifetimes, transition objects, disk demographics, and highlight a few remarkable results from ALMA Early Science observations. We finish with a brief discussion of ALMA's potential to transform the field in near future.

Surface rotation rates of young solar-type stars display drastic changes at the end of the pre-main sequence through the early main sequence. This may trigger corresponding changes in the magnetic dynamos operating in these stars, which ought to be observable in their surface magnetic fields. We present here the first results of an observational effort aimed at characterizing the evolution of stellar magnetic fields through this critical phase. We observed stars from open clusters and associations, which range from 20 to 600 Myr, and used Zeeman Doppler Imaging to characterize their complex magnetic fields. We find a clear trend towards weaker magnetic fields for older ages, as well as a tight correlation between magnetic field strength and Rossby number over this age range. Comparing to results for younger T Tauri stars, we observe a very significant change in magnetic strength and geometry, as the radiative core develops during the late pre-main sequence.

Using time-series photometry from the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) exoplanet survey, we are looking for eclipses of stars by their protoplanetary disks, specifically in young stellar associations. To date, we have discovered two previously unknown, large dimming events around the young stars RW Aurigae and V409 Tau. We attribute the dimming of RW Aurigae to an occultation by its tidally disrupted disk, with the disruption perhaps resulting from a recent flyby of its binary companion. Even with the dynamical environment of RW Aurigae, the distorted disk material remains very compact and presumably capable of forming planets. This system also shows that strong binary interactions with disks can also influence planet and core composition by stirring up and mixing materials during planet formation. We interpret the dimming of V409 Tau to be due to a feature, possibly a warp or perturbation, lying at least 10 AU from the host star in its nearly edge-on circumstellar disk.

Stellar evolution models are a cornerstone of young star astrophysics, which necessitates that they yield accurate and reliable predictions of stellar properties. Here, I review the current performance of stellar evolution models against young astrophysical benchmarks and highlight recent progress incorporating non-standard physics, such as magnetic field and starspots, to explain observed deficiencies. While addition of these physical processes leads to improved agreement between models and observations, there are several fundamental limitations in our understanding about how these physical processes operate. These limitations inhibit our ability to form a coherent picture of the essential physics needed to accurately compute young stellar models, but provide rich avenues for further exploration.

Main sequence stars hosting extreme quantities of inner planetary system debris are likely experiencing transient dust production events. The nature of these events, if they can be unambiguously attributed to a single process, can potentially inform us on the formation and/or early evolution of rocky Earth-like planets. In this contribution I examine some of the dustiest main sequence stars known and three processes that may be capable of reproducing their observed properties. Through this activity I also make an estimate for the likelihood of an A-type star to have an asteroid belt-like planetesimal population.

We present a novel way to mine the Kepler data for young M dwarfs.