Three very young HgMn stars in the Orion OB1 Association

We report the detection of three mercury-manganese stars in the Orion OB1 association. HD 37886 and BD-0 984 are in the approximately 1.7 million year old Orion OB1b. HD 37492 is in the approximately 4.6 million year old Orion OB1c. Orion OB1b is now the youngest cluster with known HgMn star members. This places an observational upper limit on the time scale needed to produce the chemical peculiarities seen in mercury-manganese stars, which should help in the search for the cause or causes of the peculiar abundances in HgMn and other chemically peculiar upper main sequence stars.Comment: 8 pages including 1 figure. To appear in Astrophysical Journal Letter