NEW MEMBERS OF THE SCORPIUS-CENTAURUS COMPLEX AND AGES OF ITS SUB-REGIONS

We have spectroscopically identified similar to 100 G-, K-, and M-type members of the Scorpius-Centaurus complex. To deduce the age of these young stars we compare their Li lambda 6708 absorption line strengths against those of stars in the TW Hydrae association and beta Pictoris moving group. These line strengths indicate that Sco-Cen stars are younger than beta Pic stars whose ages of similar to 12 Myr have previously been derived from a kinematic traceback analysis. Our derived age, similar to 10 Myr, for stars in the Lower Centaurus Crux and Upper Centaurus Lupus subgroups of ScoCen is younger than previously published ages based on the moving cluster method and upper main-sequence fitting. The discrepant ages are likely due to an incorrect (or lack of) cross-calibration between model-dependent and model-independent age-dating methods.