We present a Chandra study of the deeply embedded Serpens South starforming region, examining cluster structure and disk properties at the earliest stages. In total, 152 X-ray sources are detected. Combined with Spitzer and 2MASS photometry, 66 X-ray sources are reliably matched to an IR counterpart. We identify 21 class I, 6 flat spectrum, 16 class II, and 18 class III young stars; 5 were unclassified. Eighteen sources were variable in X-rays: 8 exhibiting flarelike emission, and one periodic source. The clusters X-ray luminosity distance was estimated: the best match was to the nearer distance of 260 pc for the front of the Aquila Rift complex. The N H vs. A K ratio is found to be ∼0.68x10 22 , similar to that measured in other young low mass regions, but lower than that measured in the ISM and high mass clusters (∼1.6-2x10 22 ). We find the spatial distribution closely follows that of the dense filament from which the stars have formed, with the class II population still strongly associated with the filament. There are four sub-clusters in the field, with three forming knots in the filament, and a fourth to the west, which may not be associated but may be contributing to the distributed class III population. A high percentage of diskless class IIIs ( upper limit 30% of classified X-ray sources) in such a young cluster could indicate that processing of disks is influenced by the cluster environment and is not solely time-scale dependent. the diskless class III stars (which do not exhibit excess emission in the IR) from field stars in combination with the IR photometry.In this paper we first discuss, in Sect. 2, the Chandra and Spitzer observations and the data reduction process. In Sect. 3 we will discuss the identification and evolutionary classification of the YSOs. A discusssion of the X-ray properties of the identified members, their spatial distribution, and the X-ray luminosity distance determination is presented in Sect. 4. Finally, a brief summary is presented in Sect. 5.
Observations andData Reduction 2.1. Chandra ACIS-I Data The Serpens South cluster was observed by Chandra with the ACIS instrument on 7th June 2010, in a single epoch with a 97.49 ks/pix exposure time as part of OBSID 11013. The ACIS-I field was centered on the J2000 coordinates: 18 h 30 m 03 s , -02 o 01 ′ 58 ′′ , with a 17'×17' field of view. The observation was taken with ACIS-I in F AINT mode, and T E exposure mode with no grating, and included two of the ACIS-S chips adjacent to the ACIS-I array.The primary and secondary data were downloaded from the Chandra X-ray Center's archive and reprocessed with the CIAO v4.8 reproc tool to ensure that the latest CALDB 4.7.2 corrections were applied (Fruscione et al. 2006). The CIAO task f luximage was used to create an exposure map to correct for the photon energy dependent effective collecting area and the presence of chip gaps. Exposure maps were created to accurately represent the effective area across the imaging array. 1 The effective area is applied by CIAO to all further processing. ...