LBT-MODS spectroscopy of young stellar objects in the distant metal-poor star forming region Sh2-284: Stellar and accretion properties

We present a spectroscopic survey of young stellar objects (YSOs) in Sh2-284, a distant (4.5 kpc), low-metallicity (Z 1/3 Zsun) star-forming region (SFR) toward the Galactic anticenter. Candidate YSOs were selected using mid-infrared Spitzer/IRAC data with optical and near-infrared photometry. Follow-up spectroscopy was conducted with MODS at the Large Binocular Telescope. We characterize the stellar and accretion properties of the disk-bearing population in a metal-poor environment, probing stellar masses from 2.95 Msun to 0.35 Msun. This work constitutes the first wide-field (45'x45') spectroscopic investigation of YSOs in Sh2-284, providing a comprehensive view of star formation in this Galactic environment. We provide tentative first estimates of iron abundance for three low-mass targets and lithium abundance for a limited number of objects, offering an initial characterization of the chemical properties of these stars. We adopt a multi-diagnostic approach based on nine tracers, exploiting the spectral coverage of the instrument, using H alpha, H beta, H gamma, CaII infrared triplet, Pa eta, Pa zeta, and Pa epsilon emission lines. We derive key accretion properties and compare them with those measured in nearby, solar-metallicity SFRs to explore potential metallicity-driven differences in accretion behavior and disk evolution. We tentatively find indications of a flattening in the flux-flux relations of the metal-poor YSOs compared to solar-metallicity samples, a behavior that is recovered across diagnostics. Our observations indicate that the selected disk-bearing YSOs in this metal-poor environment exhibit resilient accretion activity, spanning from 2.3x10(-10) Msun/yr and 1.0x10(-6) Msun/yr, and a median rate of 2.2x10(-8) Msun/yr. Overall, this demonstrates that gas accretion can be efficiently sustained in sub-solar metallicity environments.