Abstract. We present a near-infrared spectroscopic survey of a large area centered on the Cygnus OB2 association aimed at constraining its massive star contents. Our goal is to establish a nearly complete list of O-type members of the association, both to examine recent claims based on starcounts that suggest a richer content than previously thought, and to provide a suitable database for further studies of the entire high-mass end of one of the richest associations of the Galaxy. The target selection is based on the JHK photometry published in the 2MASS all-sky survey. We identify 46 new early-type candidates, most of them expected to be O-type stars, plus 16 new stars with emission in Brγ and often in other lines as well, characteristic of evolved massive stars undergoing intense mass loss. We also present spectra of three luminous stars with CO overtone emission, one of them having also intense H2 emission and being associated with compact nebulosity. By considering our findings, those of other authors, and plausible completeness corrections, we estimate the number of O-type stars or stars having evolved from a O-type progenitor to be 90-100, slightly below, but compatible with, most recent starcounts estimates by Knödlseder (2000, A&A, 360, 539). These results support the notion that Cygnus OB2 may be considered as a young globular cluster. The lists of new members that we provide, in particular those with emission lines, should be a useful resource for future investigations of Cygnus OB2 itself, as well as of very massive stellar evolution by providing a nearby, abundant sample of stars sharing a common environment.

Context. Most studies of the stellar and substellar populations of star-forming regions rely on using the signatures of accretion, outflows, disks, or activity characterizing the early stages of stellar evolution. However, these signatures rapidly decay with time.Aims. We present the results of a wide-area study of the stellar population of clouds in the Lupus star-forming region. When combined with 2MASS photometry, our data allow us to fit the spectral energy distributions of over 150 000 sources and identify possible new members based on their photospheric fluxes, independent of any display of the signposts of youth. Methods. We used the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the La Silla 2.2 m telescope to image an area of more than 6 square degrees in the Lupus 1, 3 and 4 clouds in the R C , I C , and z WFI bands, selected so as to overlap with the areas observed in the Spitzer Legacy Program "From molecular cores to planet-forming disks". We complement our data with 2MASS photometry to sample the spectral energy distribution from 0.6 μm to 2.2 μm. We validate our method on the census of known members of the Lupus clouds, for which spectroscopic classification is available. The temperatures derived for cool objects are generally accurate, with most of the exceptions attributed to veiling, strong emission lines at short wavelengths, near-infrared excess, variability, or the presence of close companions. Results. Considering that the dereddened fluxes of most cool (T eff < 3500 K) young stellar objects at the distance of Lupus occupy a gap between those typical both of field cool dwarfs and of background giants, we identify a new population of cool members of Lupus 1 and 3. The approximately 130 new members are only moderately concentrated toward the densest clouds, they appear to have ages in the same range as the known members, and very few show the infrared excess caused by warm disks. This population is absent in Lupus 4. Conclusions. This new population of Lupus members seems to be composed of stars and brown dwarfs that have lost their inner disks on a timescale of a few Myr or less. Almost all these objects are in low extinction regions. We speculate that dissipation of unshielded disks caused by nearby O stars or fast collapse of the pre-(sub)stellar cores triggered by the passage of old supernova shocks may have led to disk properties and evolutionary paths very different from those resulting from the more quiescent environment provided by dense molecular clouds.

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Abstract. We present the results of a multiband survey for brown dwarfs in the Chamaeleon I dark cloud with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) camera at the ESO/MPG 2.2-m telescope on La Silla (Chile). The survey has revealed a substantial population of brown dwarfs in this southern star-forming region. Candidates were selected from R, I and Hα imaging observations. We also observed in two medium-band filters, M 855 and M 915, for spectral type determination. The former filter covers a wavelength range containing spectral features characteristic of M-dwarfs, while the latter lies in a relatively featureless wavelength region for these late-type objects. A correlation was found between spectral type and (M 855-M 915) colour index for mid-to late M-type objects and early L-type dwarfs. With this method, we identify most of our object candidates as being of spectral type M 5 or later. Our results show that there is no strong drop in the number of objects for the latest spectral types, hence brown dwarfs may be as abundant as low-mass stars in this region. Also, both kind of objects have a similar spatial distribution. We derive an index α = 0.6 ± 0.1 of the mass function in this region of dispersed star formation, in good agreement with the values obtained in other star forming regions and young clusters. Some of the brown dwarfs have strong Hα emission, suggesting mass accretion. For objects with published infrared photometry, we find that strong Hα emission is related to a mid-infrared excess, indicative of the existence of a circumstellar disk.

SONYC -Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Clusters -is a survey programme to investigate the frequency and properties of substellar objects in nearby star-forming regions. We present a new imaging and spectroscopic survey conducted in the young (∼ 1 Myr), nearby (∼ 200 pc) star-forming region Lupus 3. Deep optical and nearinfrared images were obtained with MOSAIC-II and NEWFIRM at the CTIO-4m telescope, covering ∼ 1.4 deg 2 on the sky. The i-band completeness limit of 20.3 mag is equivalent to 0.009 − 0.02 M , for A V ≤ 5. Photometry and 11 − 12 yr baseline proper motions were used to select candidate low-mass members of Lupus 3. We performed spectroscopic follow-up of 123 candidates, using VIMOS at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and identify 7 probable members, among which 4 have spectral type later than M6.0 and T eff ≤ 3000 K, i.e. are probably substellar in nature. Two of the new probable members of Lupus 3 appear underluminous for their spectral class and exhibit emission line spectrum with strong H α or forbidden lines associated with active accretion. We derive a relation between the spectral type and effective temperature: T eff = (4120 ± 175) − (172 ± 26) × SpT, where SpT refers to the M spectral subtype between 1 and 9. Combining our results with the previous works on Lupus 3, we show that the spectral type distribution is consistent with that in other star forming regions, as well as is the derived star-to-BD ratio of 2.0 − 3.3. We compile a census of all spectroscopically confirmed low-mass members with spectral type M0 or later.