KECK HIRES SPECTROSCOPY OF CANDIDATE POST T TAURI STARS

This work utilizes an age-oriented method to identify isolated post T Tauri stars in a 13-star sample of high resolution spectroscopy from the 10-m Keck telescope. This analysis utilizes qualitative age information derived from lithium abundances, chromospheric emission indices and UVW kinematic motions in analyzing positions in the the H-R diagram. Once qualitatively assigned a ``young\u27\u27 age, pre-main sequence isochrones are utilized to determine stellar mass and age estimates. Through this method, 5 of the 13 stars have been confirmed as being in the post T Tauri class. We also examine irregular photometric variability of PTTs and compare the homology of observed SED\u27s with model atmospheres which reveals a possible near-IR excess. We conclude that our age oriented analysis is a robust means to select samples of nearby, young, isolated post T Tauri stars that otherwise masquerade as normal field stars