On the low mass, pre-main-sequence stellar association discovered around γ2 velorum

We summarise our evidence for the presence of a population of low-mass, pre-main-sequence stars (PMS) around the Wolf-Rayet/O-star binary system gamma(2) Vel, from photometric and X-ray observations. We have now obtained High-resolution fibre spectroscopy for a subset of the photometric candidates, confirming the PMS nature of 34 stars thanks to their Li I 6708 Angstrom equivalent widths and radial velocities. We find that all the PMS stars are of the wear lined T-Tauri type, indicating that less than a few percent of these objects can have retained circumstellar discs in this hostile environment. A preliminary estimate of the initial mass function (IMF) suggests that it could be consistent with a Miller-Scalo IMF down to 0.15 M-circle dot.