# Placing the spotted T Tauri star LkCa 4 on an HR diagram

## TL;DR

This study models the impact of starspots on the observed properties of the T Tauri star LkCa 4, revealing that starspots significantly affect age and mass estimates derived from stellar evolution models.

## Contribution

Introduces a new spectral fitting methodology to constrain starspot properties and highlights the need for spotted stellar evolution models for accurate young star characterization.

## Key findings

- Starspots cover about 80% of LkCa 4's surface.
- Starspots cause the star to appear younger and less massive.
- Spectral features indicate a hot and a cool component with distinct temperatures.

## Abstract

Ages and masses of young stars are often estimated by comparing their luminosities and effective temperatures to pre-main sequence stellar evolution tracks, but magnetic fields and starspots complicate both the observations and evolution. To understand their influence, we study the heavily-spotted weak-lined T-Tauri star LkCa 4 by searching for spectral signatures of radiation originating from the starspot or starspot groups. We introduce a new methodology for constraining both the starspot filling factor and the spot temperature by fitting two-temperature stellar atmosphere models constructed from Phoenix synthetic spectra to a high-resolution near-IR IGRINS spectrum. Clearly discernable spectral features arise from both a hot photospheric component $T_{\mathrm{hot}} \sim4100$ K and to a cool component $T_{\mathrm{cool}} \sim2700-3000$ K, which covers $\sim80\%$ of the visible surface. This mix of hot and cool emission is supported by analyses of the spectral energy distribution, rotational modulation of colors and of TiO band strengths, and features in low-resolution optical/near-IR spectroscopy. Although the revised effective temperature and luminosity make LkCa 4 appear much younger and lower mass than previous estimates from unspotted stellar evolution models, appropriate estimates will require the production and adoption of spotted evolutionary models. Biases from starspots likely afflict most fully convective young stars and contribute to uncertainties in ages and age spreads of open clusters. In some spectral regions starspots act as a featureless veiling continuum owing to high rotational broadening and heavy line-blanketing in cool star spectra. Some evidence is also found for an anti-correlation between the velocities of the warm and cool components.