A NEAR-INFRARED SURVEY FOR PRE-MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS IN TAURUS

We present a near-infrared survey of approximately 2 deg2 covering parts of L1537, L1538, and Heiles cloud 2 in the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud. Although this study is more sensitive than previous attempts to identify pre-main sequence stars in Taurus-Auriga, our survey regions contain only one new optically visible, young star. We did find several candidate embedded protostars; additional 10 mum photometry is necessary to verify the pre-main sequence nature of these sources. Our results - combined with those of previous surveys-show that the L1537/L1538 clouds contain no pre-main sequence stars. These two clouds are less dense than the active star formation sites in Taurus-Auriga, which suggests a cloud must achieve a threshold density to form stars.