The CIDA-QUEST Large-Scale Survey of Orion OB1: Evidence for Rapid Disk Dissipation in a Dispersed Stellar Population

Abstract

We are conducting a large-scale, multiepoch, optical photometric survey [Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomı́a–Quasar Equatorial Survey Team (CIDA-QUEST)] covering about 120 square degrees to identify the young low-mass stars in the Orion OB1 association. We present results for an area of 34 square degrees. Using photometric variability as our main selection criterion, as well as follow-up spectroscopy, we confirmed 168 previously unidentified pre–main sequence stars that are about 0.6 to 0.9 times the mass of the sun ( M ⊙ ), with ages of about 1 million to 3 million years (Ori OB1b) and about 3 million to 10 million years (Ori OB1a). The low-mass stars are spatially coincident with the high-mass (at least 3 M ⊙ ) members of the associations. Indicators of disk accretion such as Hα emission and near-infrared emission from dusty disks fall sharply from Ori OB1b to Ori OB1a, indicating that the time scale for disk dissipation and possibly the onset of planet formation is a few million years.