Global properties of star formation in Taurus

A careful analysis of the data available in the literature has been carried out to determine the global properties of star formation in Taurus. Three main trends arise in the data: (1) the magnetic field in Taurus is distorted in the direction of the proper motions of the T Tauri Stars (TIS) (see below). (2) the groups with different proper motions seem to have different stellar contents. An analysis of the stellar population based on the equivalent width of Hα, W(Hα), shows that groups I and III (Jones and Herbig, 1979) have approximately the same population (TTS show either large or small W(Hα)). However in group II (central part of the cloud) there are also a large number of stars with intermediate W(Hα) (Gomez de Castro and Pudritz, 1990). (3) the mass function of the NH 3 cores (thought to be "protostellar cores") is dN/dM< M ∝ with α=−1.5, in contrast with the IMF of the TTS given by Cohen and Kuhi (1979), α=−2.5. Only point (1) will be outlined in this contribution.