Chandra X-ray observation of the HII region Gum 31 in the Carina Nebula complex

(abridged) We used the Chandra observatory to perform a deep (70 ksec) X-ray observation of the Gum 31 region and detected 679 X-ray point sources. This extends and complements the X-ray survey of the central Carina nebula regions performed in the Chandra Carina Complex Project. Using deep near-infrared images from our recent VISTA survey of the Carina nebula complex, our Spitzer point-source catalog, and optical archive data, we identify counterparts for 75% of these X-ray sources. Their spatial distribution shows two major concentrations, the central cluster NGC 3324 and a partly embedded cluster in the southern rim of the HII region, but majority of X-ray sources constitute a rather homogeneously distributed population of young stars. Our color-magnitude diagram analysis suggests ages of ~1-2 Myr for the two clusters, whereas the distributed population shows a wider age range up to ~10 Myr. We also identify previously unknown companions to two of the three O-type members of NGC 3324 and detect diffuse X-ray emission in the region. Our results suggests that the observed region contains about 4000 young stars in total. The distributed population is probably part of the widely distributed population of ~ 1-10 Myr old stars, that was identified in the CCCP area. This implies that the global stellar configuration of the Carina nebula complex is a very extended stellar association, in which the (optically prominent) clusters contain only a minority of the stellar population.