Abstract We present an astrometric study of the candidates of T Tauri stars (TTS) and non-TTS X-ray sources around Tau-Aur, based on the Hipparcos Catalogue and the ACT Reference Catalogue. The ROSAT selected X-ray sources are found to be a mixed population. A few of them are associated with the Tau-Aur or Orion Star Forming Regions (SFR). Some, with distances similar to that of Tau-Aur but with discrepant proper motions, are probable or sure Pleiades super-cluster members or other late type young active stars with unresolved nature, more likely to originate in rapidly moving cloudlets, or else having originated from different sites other than Tau-Aur and moved to the present locations. A good many of the non-TTS X-ray sources are considered as Hyades cluster members. Some TTS candidates could be foreground pre-main sequence stars or actually young dwarfs not yet depleted of their Lithium. Under the hypothesis that the sources we studied are representative of the ROSAT selected TTS candidates discovered in the outskirts of the Tau-Aur region, we conclude that only up to one third of the weak-line TTS candidates could be expected to be physically associated with the Tau-Aur association. Along with the parallax and proper motion analysis of the non-TTS X-ray sources around the Tau-Aur SFR, our result suggests that the vast majority of the young active X-ray sources within an angular diameter of about 30° of the Tau-Aur SFR, belong to four main subgroups that are spatially separate.

Keywords stars: formation --- stars: pre-main sequence --- stars: late-type --- Astrometry

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