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A kinematically hot population of young stars in the solar neighbourhood (2020)
Journal Article
Binks, A., Wright, N., & Jeffries, R. (2020). A kinematically hot population of young stars in the solar neighbourhood. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 494(2), 2429-2439. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa909

In the last three decades several hundred nearby members of young stellar moving groups (MGs) have been identified, but there has been less systematic effort to quantify or characterise young stars that do not belong to previously identified MGs. Usi... Read More about A kinematically hot population of young stars in the solar neighbourhood.

Deep Chandra Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud. III. Formation Efficiency of High-mass X-Ray Binaries (2019)
Journal Article
Wright. (2019). Deep Chandra Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud. III. Formation Efficiency of High-mass X-Ray Binaries. Astrophysical Journal, https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab4a7a

We have compiled the most complete census of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) in the Small Magellanic Cloud with the aim to investigate the formation efficiency of young accreting binaries in its low-metallicity environment. In total, we use 123 X-ra... Read More about Deep Chandra Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud. III. Formation Efficiency of High-mass X-Ray Binaries.

Kinematic signatures of cluster formation from cool collapse in the Lagoon Nebula cluster NGC 6530 (2019)
Journal Article
Wright. (2019). Kinematic signatures of cluster formation from cool collapse in the Lagoon Nebula cluster NGC 6530. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2694 -2701. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2303

We examine the mass dependence of the velocity dispersion of stars in the young cluster NGC 6530 to better understand how it formed. Using a large sample of members we find that the proper motion velocity dispersion increases with stellar mass. While... Read More about Kinematic signatures of cluster formation from cool collapse in the Lagoon Nebula cluster NGC 6530.

Dynamical evolution of star-forming regions: III. Unbound stars and predictions for Gaia (2019)
Journal Article
Schoettler, C., Parker, R. J., Arnold, B., Grimmett, L. P., de Bruijne, J., & Wright, N. J. (2019). Dynamical evolution of star-forming regions: III. Unbound stars and predictions for Gaia. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 4615-4630. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz1487

We use N-body simulations to probe the early phases of the dynamical evolution of star-forming regions and focus on mass and velocity distributions of unbound stars. In this parameter space study, we vary the initial virial ratio and degree of spatia... Read More about Dynamical evolution of star-forming regions: III. Unbound stars and predictions for Gaia.

Expanding associations in the Vela-Puppis region - 3D structure and kinematics of the young population (2019)
Journal Article
Cantat-Gaudin, T., Jordi1, C., Wright, N., Armstrong, J., Vallenari, A., Balaguer-Núñez, L., Ramos, P., Bossini, D., Padoan, P., Pelkonen, V., Mapelli, M., & Jeffries, R. (2019). Expanding associations in the Vela-Puppis region - 3D structure and kinematics of the young population. Astronomy and Astrophysics, A17 - A17. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834957

Context. The Vela-Puppis region is known to host the Vela OB2 association as well as several young clusters featuring OB and pre-main-sequence stars. Several spatial and kinematic subgroups have been identified in recent years. Aims. By grouping star... Read More about Expanding associations in the Vela-Puppis region - 3D structure and kinematics of the young population.

The O star hinterland of the Galactic starburst, NGC 3603 (2019)
Journal Article
Wright. (2019). The O star hinterland of the Galactic starburst, NGC 3603. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1034-1044. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz864

The very bright and compact massive young cluster, NGC 3603, has been cited as an example of a starburst in the Milky Way and compared with the much-studied R136/30 Doradus region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Here we build on the discovery by Mohr-... Read More about The O star hinterland of the Galactic starburst, NGC 3603.

Disentangling the spatial substructure of Cygnus OB2 from Gaia DR2 (2019)
Journal Article
Wright. (2019). Disentangling the spatial substructure of Cygnus OB2 from Gaia DR2. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1838 -1842. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz117

For the first time, we have explored the spatial substructure of the Cygnus OB2 association using parallaxes from the recent second Gaia data release. We find significant line-of-sight substructure within the association, which we quantify using a pa... Read More about Disentangling the spatial substructure of Cygnus OB2 from Gaia DR2.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: asymmetric expansion of the Lagoon Nebula cluster NGC 6530 from GES and Gaia DR2 (2019)
Journal Article
Wright, N. J., Jeffries, R. D., Jackson, R. J., Bayo, A., Bonito, R., Damiani, F., Kalari, V., Lanzafame, A. C., Pancino, E., Parker, R. J., Prisinzano, L., Randich, S., Vink, J. S., Alfaro, E. J., Bergemann, M., Franciosini, E., Gilmore, G., Gonneau, A., Hourihane, A., Jofré, P., …Zaggia, S. (2019). The Gaia-ESO Survey: asymmetric expansion of the Lagoon Nebula cluster NGC 6530 from GES and Gaia DR2. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 486(2), 2477-2493. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz870

The combination of precise radial velocities from multi-object spectroscopy and highly accurate proper motions from Gaia DR2 opens up the possibility for detailed 3D kinematic studies of young star-forming regions and clusters. Here, we perform such... Read More about The Gaia-ESO Survey: asymmetric expansion of the Lagoon Nebula cluster NGC 6530 from GES and Gaia DR2.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: Age spread in the star forming region NGC 6530 from the HR diagram and gravity indicators (2019)
Journal Article
Prisinzano, L., Damiani, F., Kalari, V., Jeffries, R., Bonito, R., Micela, G., Wright, N. J., Jackson, R. J., Tognelli, E., Guarcello, M. G., Vink, J. S., Klutsch, A., Jiménez-Esteban, F. M., Roccatagliata, V., Tautvaišienė, G., Gilmore, G., Randich, S., Alfaro, E. J., Flaccomio, E., Koposov, S., …Zaggia, S. (2019). The Gaia-ESO Survey: Age spread in the star forming region NGC 6530 from the HR diagram and gravity indicators. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 623, Article A159. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834870

Context. In very young clusters, stellar age distribution is empirical proof of the duration of star cluster formation and thus it gives indications of the physical mechanisms involved in the star formation process. Determining the amount of interste... Read More about The Gaia-ESO Survey: Age spread in the star forming region NGC 6530 from the HR diagram and gravity indicators.

The stellar rotation-activity relationship in fully convective M dwarfs (2018)
Journal Article
Wright. (2018). The stellar rotation-activity relationship in fully convective M dwarfs. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2351 - 2360. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1670

The coronal activity-rotation relationship is considered to be a proxy for the underlying stellar dynamo responsible for magnetic activity in solar and late-type stars. While this has been studied in considerable detail for partly convective stars th... Read More about The stellar rotation-activity relationship in fully convective M dwarfs.

Evolution of spatio-kinematic structures in star-forming regions: are Friends of Friends worth knowing? (2018)
Journal Article
Wright, N., & Parker, R. J. (2018). Evolution of spatio-kinematic structures in star-forming regions: are Friends of Friends worth knowing?. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 481(2), 1679-1689. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2372

The Friends of Friends algorithm identifies groups of objects with similar spatial and kinematic properties, and has recently been used extensively to quantify the distributions of gas and stars in young star-forming regions. We apply the Friends of... Read More about Evolution of spatio-kinematic structures in star-forming regions: are Friends of Friends worth knowing?.

A sextet of clusters in the Vela OB2 region revealed by Gaia (2018)
Journal Article
Wright. (2018). A sextet of clusters in the Vela OB2 region revealed by Gaia. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/sly144

Using Gaia DR2 data, combined with OmegaCAM ground-based optical photometry from the AD-HOC survey, and detailed Radial Velocity measurements from ESO-Gaia, we analyse in detail a 10 ×5 deg region around the Wolf-Rayet star ?2 Vel, including the prev... Read More about A sextet of clusters in the Vela OB2 region revealed by Gaia.

The low mass population of the Vela OB2 association from Gaia (2018)
Journal Article
Armstrong, J. J., Jeffries, R. D., & Wright, N. J. (2018). The low mass population of the Vela OB2 association from Gaia. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 480(1), L121–L125. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/sly137

The first Gaia Data Release presents an opportunity to characterise the low-mass population of OB associations, providing larger statistical samples and better constraints on the formation and evolution of clusters and associations. Using previously... Read More about The low mass population of the Vela OB2 association from Gaia.

Massive stars in the hinterland of the young cluster, Westerlund 2 (2018)
Journal Article
Wright. (2018). Massive stars in the hinterland of the young cluster, Westerlund 2. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2109-2124. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1905

An unsettled question concerning the formation and distribution of massive stars is whether they must be born in massive clusters and, if found in less dense environments, whether they must have migrated there. With the advent of wide-area digital ph... Read More about Massive stars in the hinterland of the young cluster, Westerlund 2.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: a kinematical and dynamical study of four young open clusters (2018)
Journal Article
Jeffries, R., Jackson, R., & Wright, N. (2018). The Gaia-ESO Survey: a kinematical and dynamical study of four young open clusters. Astronomy & Astrophysics, https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201832645

Context
The origin and dynamical evolution of star clusters is an important topic in stellar astrophysics. Several models have been proposed in order to understand the formation of bound and unbound clusters and their evolution, and they can be test... Read More about The Gaia-ESO Survey: a kinematical and dynamical study of four young open clusters.

The Kinematics of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association from Gaia DR1 (2018)
Journal Article
Wright. (2018). The Kinematics of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association from Gaia DR1. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 381-398. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty207

We present a kinematic study of the Scorpius-Centaurus (Sco-Cen) OB association (Sco OB2) using Gaia DR1 parallaxes and proper motions. Our goal is to test the classical theory that OB associations are the expanded remnants of dense and compact star... Read More about The Kinematics of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association from Gaia DR1.

Discovery of a New Classical Nova Shell Around a Nova-like Cataclysmic Variable (2018)
Journal Article
Wright. (2018). Discovery of a New Classical Nova Shell Around a Nova-like Cataclysmic Variable. Astrophysical Journal, https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aab669

The morphology and optical spectrum of IPHASX J210204.7+471015, a nebula classified as a possible planetary
nebula are, however, strikingly similar to those of AT Cnc, a classical nova shell around a dwarf nova. To
investigate its true nature, we h... Read More about Discovery of a New Classical Nova Shell Around a Nova-like Cataclysmic Variable.

A new mechanical stellar wind feedback model for the Rosette Nebula (2018)
Journal Article
Wright. (2018). A new mechanical stellar wind feedback model for the Rosette Nebula. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 3598-3612. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty148

The famous Rosette Nebula has an evacuated central cavity formed from the stellar winds ejected from the 2-6 million-year-old co-distant and co-moving central star cluster NGC 2244. However, with upper age estimates of less than 110,000 years, the ce... Read More about A new mechanical stellar wind feedback model for the Rosette Nebula.

A and F stars as probes of outer Galactic disc kinematics (2018)
Journal Article
Wright. (2018). A and F stars as probes of outer Galactic disc kinematics. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1680 -1695. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx3299

Previous studies of the rotation law in the outer Galactic disc have mainly used gas tracers or clump giants. Here, we explore A and F stars as alternatives: these provide a much denser sampling in the outer disc than gas tracers and have experienced... Read More about A and F stars as probes of outer Galactic disc kinematics.