* Astronomy

Title: The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds. XI. Lupus Observed With IRAC and MIPS
Authors: Bruno Merin, Jes Jorgensen, Loredana Spezzi, Juan M. Alcala, Neal J. Evans II, Paul M. Harvey, Nicholas Chapman, Tracy Huard, Ewine F. van Dishoeck, Fernando Comeron

We present c2d Spitzer/IRAC observations of the Lupus I, III and IV dark clouds and discuss them in combination with optical and near-infrared and c2d MIPS data. With the Spitzer data, the new sample contains 159 stars, 4 times larger than the previous one. It is dominated by low- and very-low mass stars and it is complete down to M ~ 0.1 solar masses. We find 30-40 % binaries with separations between 100 to 2000 AU with no apparent effect in the disk properties of the members. A large majority of the objects are Class II or Class III objects, with only 20 (12%) of Class I or Flat spectrum sources. The disk sample is complete down to "debris"-like systems in stars as small as M ~ 0.2 solar masses and includes sub-stellar objects with larger IR excesses. The disk fraction in Lupus is 70 -- 80%, consistent with an age of 1 -- 2 Myr. However, the young population contains 20% optically thick accretion disks and 40% relatively less flared disks. A growing variety of inner disk structures is found for larger inner disk clearings for equal disk masses. Lupus III is the most centrally populated and rich, followed by Lupus I with a filamentary structure and by Lupus IV, where a very high density core with little star-formation activity has been found. We estimate star formation rates in Lupus of 2 -- 10 solar masses Myr^{-1} and star formation efficiencies of a few percent, apparently correlated with the associated cloud masses.

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