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Description
We use the fundamental parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, lithium abundance, and radial velocity) delivered by the GES consortium in the first internal data release to select the members of Gamma Vel and Cha I among the UVES and GIRAFFE spectroscopic observations. A total of 140 Gamma Vel members and 74 Cha I members were studied. The procedure adopted by the GES to derive stellar fundamental parameters provided also measures of the projected rotational velocity (vsini). We calculated stellar luminosities through spectral energy distributions, while stellar masses were derived by comparison with evolutionary tracks. The spectral subtraction of low-activity and slowly rotating templates, which are rotationally broadened to match the vsini of the targets, enabled us to measure the equivalent widths (EWs) and the fluxes in the H{alpha} and H{beta} lines. The H{alpha} line was also used for identifying accreting objects, on the basis of its equivalent width and the width at the 10% of the line peak (10%W), and for evaluating the mass accretion rate (M_acc_). The distribution of vsini for the members of Gamma Vel displays a peak at about 10km/s with a tail toward faster rotators. There is also some indication of a different vsini distribution for the members of its two kinematical populations. Most of these stars have H{alpha} fluxes corresponding to a saturated activity regime. We find a similar distribution, but with a narrower peak, for Cha I. Only a handful of stars in Gamma Vel display signatures of accretion, while many more accretors were detected in the younger Cha I, where the highest H{alpha} fluxes are mostly due to accretion, rather than to chromospheric activity. Accreting and active stars occupy two different regions in a T_eff-flux diagram and we propose a criterion for distinguishing them. We derive M_acc in the ranges 10^-11^-10^-9^M_{sun}_/yr and 10^-10^-10^-7^M_{sun}_/yr for Gamma Vel and Cha I accretors, respectively.
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