Can Post T Tauri Stars Be Found? Yes!
Eric L. N. Jensen
Swarthmore College
Department of Physics and Astronomy
500
College Ave.
Swarthmore, PA 19081 USA
Abstract
I review the observational challenges of finding post T Tauri stars
(PTTS), defined here as low-mass, pre-main-sequence stars with ages
of 107-108 yr. Such stars are difficult to find because they
are less active than younger T Tauri stars, and
they may not be associated with molecular gas. They are useful for
studying the evolution of circumstellar disks and stellar activity
between the 106-yr ages of nearby star-forming regions and the
main sequence. However, care must be taken in the search process so
that the selection criteria used to locate such stars do not bias
the sample used for subsequent evolutionary studies.
Eric Jensen <ejensen1@swarthmore.edu>
Last modified: Wed May 2 14:29:52 2001