Post-T Tauri stars in the nearest OB association

We present results of a spectroscopic survey of X-ray and proper-motion selected samples of late-type stars in the Lower Centaurus-Crux (LCC) and Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL) subgroups of the nearest OB association: Scorpius-Centaurus. The primary goals of the survey are to determine the star formation history of the OB subgroups and to assess the frequency of accreting stars in a sample dominated by post-T Tauri pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars. We investigate two samples: (1) proper-motion candidates from the ACT Catalog and Tycho Reference Catalog (TRC) with X-ray counterparts in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) Bright Source Catalog and (2) G- and K-type stars in the Hipparcos catalog found to be candidate members by de Zeeuw et al. We obtained optical spectra of 130 candidates with the Siding Spring 2.3 m dual-beam spectrograph. PMS stars were identified by (1) strong Li lambda6707 absorption, (2) subgiant surface gravities, (3) proper motions consistent with Sco-Cen membership, and (4) H-R diagram positions consistent with being PMS. We find 93% of the RASS-ACT/TRC stars to be probable PMS members, compared with 73% of the Hipparcos candidates. We demonstrate that measuring the gravity-sensitive band ratio of Sr II lambda4077 to Fe I lambda4071 is a valuable means of discriminating PMS and zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) stars. Using secular parallaxes and Hipparcos, Tycho-2, and Two Micron All Sky Survey photometry, we construct an H-R diagram. Depending on the choice of published evolutionary tracks, we find the mean ages of the PMS populations to range between 17 and 23 Myr for LCC and 15 and 22 Myr for UCL. Taking into account observational errors, it appears that 95% of the low-mass star formation in each subgroup must have occurred in less than 8 Myr ( LCC) and 12 Myr ( UCL). Using the Bertelli et al. tracks, we find main-sequence turnoff ages for Hipparcos B-type members to be 16 +/- 1 Myr for LCC and 17 +/- 1 Myr for UCL. Contrary to previous findings, it appears that LCC is coeval with, or slightly older than, UCL. The secular parallaxes of the Sco-Cen PMS stars yield distances of 85-215 pc, with 12 of the LCC members lying within 100 pc of the Sun. Only one out of 110 (0.9(-0.8)(+2.1)%; 1 sigma) PMS solar-type stars in the sample with ages of 13 +/- 1 (s.e.) +/- 6 (1 sigma) Myr and masses of 1.3 +/- 0.2 (1 sigma) M. shows both enhanced Halpha emission and a K-band excess indicative of accretion from a truncated circumstellar disk: the nearby (d similar or equal to 86 pc) classical T Tauri star PDS 66.