Fundamental properties of pre-main sequence stars in young, southern star forming regions: metallicities - The weak-lined T-Tauri stars

Aims. The primary motivation for this project is to search for metal-rich star forming regions, in which, stars of super-solar metallicity will be created, as hopefully, will be extra-solar planets orbiting them! The two aims of this project are: 1) to show that our sample stars are young, lithium rich, magnetically active and non-accreting kinematic members of their respective regions. 2) To measure the metallicity for such members. Methods. The feros echelle spectrograph together with ESO's 2.2 m telescope, was used to obtain high resolution (R = 32 000) spectra for each of our weak-lined T-Tauri target stars. The wavelength range of the spectra is similar or equal to 4000-8000 angstrom. Results. We find (pre-main sequence) model-dependent isochronal ages of the Lupus, Chamaeleon and CrA targets to be 9.1 +/- 2.1 Myr, 4.5 +/- 1.6 Myr and 9.0 +/- 3.9 Myr respectively. The majority of the stars have Li I 6707.8 angstrom equivalent widths similar to, or above those of, their similar mass Pleiades counterparts, confirming their youthfulness. Most stars are kinematic members, either single or binary, of their regions. We find a mean radial velocity for objects in the Lupus cloud to be RV = +2.6 +/- 1.8 km s(-1), for the Chamaeleon I & II clouds, RV = +12.8 +/- 3.6 km s(-1) whereas for the CrA cloud, we find RV = -1.1 +/- 0.5 km s(-1). Conclusions. A sample of stars in several nearby, young star-forming regions has been established, the majority of which is young, lithium rich, magnetically active and are non-accreting kinematic members of their respective clouds. Within the errors, each region is essentially of solar metallicity.