Physical Characterization of Brown Dwarfs

We use the results of a new, multi-epoch, multi-wavelength, near-infrared census of the Trapezium Cluster in Orion to construct and to analyze the structure of its infrared (K band) luminosity function. Specifically, we employ an improved set of model luminosity functions to derive this cluster's underlying Initial Mass Function (IMF) across the entire range of mass from OB stars to sub-stellar objects down to near the deuterium burning limit. We derive an IMF for the Trapezium Cluster that rises with decreasing mass, having a Salpeter-like IMF slope until near ~0.6 M_sun where the IMF flattens and forms a broad peak extending to the hydrogen burning limit, below which the IMF declines into the sub-stellar regime. Independent of the details, we find that sub-stellar objects account for no more than ~22% of the total number of likely cluster members. Further, the sub-stellar Trapezium IMF breaks from a steady power-law decline and forms a significant secondary peak at the lowest masses (10-20 times the mass of Jupiter). This secondary peak may contain as many as \~30% of the sub-stellar objects in the cluster. Below this sub-stellar IMF peak, our KLF modeling requires a subsequent sharp decline toward the planetary mass regime. Lastly, we investigate the robustness of pre-main sequence luminosity evolution as predicted by current evolutionary models, and we discuss possible origins for the IMF of brown dwarfs.

Stars in globular clusters formed and evolved in the most extreme environment: high density and low metallicity. If the formation of stars and planets is at all sensitive to environmental conditions, this should therefore be evident in globular clusters. Observations have indicated that hot Jupiters are at least an order of magnitude less prevalent in the central region of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae (Tuc) than in the field. In this work, we explore the claims in the literature for additional consequences for the low-mass stellar initial mass function. Tidal capture, the mechanism that produces X-ray binaries in globular clusters, applies also to brown dwarfs (BDs). This process produces tight stellar–BD binaries that would be detectable by transit surveys. Applying a Monte Carlo dynamical evolution model, we compute the overall BD capture rates. We find that the number of captures is lower than previous estimates. Capture efficiency increases steeply with stellar mass, which means that mass segregation reduces capture efficiency as BDs and low-mass stars occupy the same regions. The result of this effect is that the current constraints on the short-period companion fraction remain marginally consistent with initially equal numbers of BDs and stars. However, our findings suggest that expanding the sample in 47 Tuc or surveying other globular clusters for close substellar companions can yield constraints on the substellar initial mass function in these environments. We estimate the capture rates in other globular clusters and suggest that 47 Tuc remains a promising target for future transit surveys.

It is by now well established that open clusters contain a considerable fraction of brown dwarfs (BDs). This paper investigates the dynamical evolution of this substellar population by using simulations with Aarseth's (1994) NBODY5 code. A noticeable preferential escape of BDs is found, which may influence the determination of the IMF of substellar objects in dynamically evolved open clusters. This small dynamical-in-origin depletion may not explain, however, the scarcity of BDs observed in some evolved clusters, as the Hyades. On the other hand, BD cooling processes are able to reduce our ability to detect BDs in old clusters in a very significant way. Our results confirm that the probability of observing BDs in open clusters is almost the same over the whole cluster area because they are distributed quite uniformly even at late stages of the evolution of the cluster. This is expected to be a general feature as observed for low-mass stars in well studied open clusters (Pleiades, Praesepe). Our present calculations show that clusters as old as the Pleiades may have lost about 10% of their initial BD population but the number ratio of BDs to normal (not substellar) stars must remain almost unchanged. However, the long-term behavior of the relative percentage of BDs depends strongly on the initial mass function (IMF) assumed in the calculations. Clusters with a Salpeterian IMF evolve to reach relative percentages of BDs as low as 40% for a starting value around 70%. Our results suggest that BDs in clusters escape preferentially by evaporation.

Brown dwarfs share characteristics with both low-mass stars and gas giant planets, making them useful laboratories for studying physics occurring in objects throughout this low mass and temperature range. Of particular interest in this dissertation is the nature of the engine driving their magnetic fields. Fully convective magnetic dynamos can operate in low mass stars, brown dwarfs, gas giant planets, and even fluid metal cores in small rocky planets. Objects in this wide mass range are capable of hosting strong magnetic fields, which shape much of the evolution of planets and stars: strong fields can protect planetary atmospheres from evaporating, generate optical and infrared emission that masquerade as clouds in the atmospheres of other worlds, and affect planet formation mechanisms. Thus, implications from understanding convective dynamo mechanisms also extend to exoplanet habitability. How the convective dynamos driving these fields operate remains an important open problem. While we have extensive data to inform models of magnetic dynamo mechanisms in higher mass stars like our Sun, the coolest and lowest-mass objects that probe the substellar-planetary boundary do not possess the internal structures necessary to drive solar-type dynamos. A number of models examining fully convective dynamo mechanisms have been proposed but they remain unconstrained by magnetic field measurements in the lowest end of the substellar mass and temperature space. Detections of highly circularly polarized pulsed radio emission provide our only window into magnetic field measurements for objects in the ultracool brown dwarf regime, but these detections are very rare; until this dissertation, only one attempt out of ~60 had been successful. The work presented in this dissertation seeks to address this problem and examines radio emission from late L, T, and Y spectral type brown dwarfs spanning ~1-6 times the surface temperature of Earth and explores implications for fully convective magnetic dynamo models.

In comparison with other well studied star formation regions, Taurus is unusual in several respects. (i) Its stellar initial mass function (IMF) peaks at relatively high mass (∼), but contains very few stars much more massive than , and is relatively deficient in brown dwarfs. (ii) It has a higher binary fraction, particularly at large separations. (iii) Its core mass function is strongly peaked at a few , and the cores have extended envelopes and relatively low levels of turbulence. We present here the results of an ensemble of hydrodynamic simulations which suggest that the unusual stellar IMF in Taurus is a direct consequence of the unusual properties of the cores there. By following the collapse and fragmentation of cores having properties typical of Taurus, we find that roughly 50% of the objects formed in a core, predominantly the low-mass ones, are ejected from the core to form a population of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs with a flat mass function. The remaining objects form multiple systems within the core, accreting until their masses approach ; this produces a population of intermediate-mass stars whose mass function peaks at ∼. Together these two populations reproduce the IMF in Taurus very well. This demonstrates, for the first time, a direct causal link between the core mass function and the stellar IMF in a star formation region.

Context. The dominant formation channel of brown dwarfs (BDs) is not well constrained yet and a promising way to discriminate between scenarios is to test the environment-dependent efficiency in forming BDs. So far, the outcome of star formation, studied through the initial mass function, has been found to be very similar in all clusters that have been inspected. Aims. We aim to characterize the low-mass (sub)stellar population of the central portion (2.4 pc2) of the ∼2 Myr old cluster NGC 2244 using near-infrared spectroscopy. By studying this cluster, characterized by a low stellar density and numerous OB stars, we aim to explore the effect that OB stars may have on the production of BDs. Methods. We obtained near-infrared HK spectroscopy of 85 faint candidate members of NGC 2244. We derived the spectral type and extinction by comparison with spectral templates. We evaluated cluster membership using three gravity-sensitive spectral indices based on the shape of the H-band. Furthermore, we evaluated the infrared excess from Spitzer of all the candidate members of the cluster. Finally, we estimated the mass of all the candidate members of the cluster and derived the initial mass function, star-to-BD number ratio, and disk fraction. Results. The initial mass function is well represented by a power law (dN/dM ∝ M−α) below 0.4 M⊙, with a slope α = 0.7–1.1 depending on the fitted mass range. We calculated a star-to-BD number ratio of 2.2–2.8. We find the low-mass population of NGC 2244 to be consistent with nearby star-forming regions, although it is at the high end of BD production. We find BDs in NGC 2244 to be, on average, closer to OB stars than to low-mass stars, which could potentially be the first piece of evidence that OB stars affect the formation of BDs. We find a disk fraction of all the members with a spectral type later than K0 of 39 ± 9% which is lower than typical values found in nearby star-forming regions of similar ages.

We present wide-field near-infrared (JHK) images of the young, τ = 2 Myr IC 348 cluster taken with FLAMINGOS. We use these new data to construct an infrared census of sources, which is sensitive enough to detect a 10 Jup brown dwarf seen through an extinction of AV ~ 7. We examine the cluster's structure and relationship to the molecular cloud and to construct the cluster's K-band luminosity function. Using our model luminosity function algorithm, we derive the cluster's initial mass function (IMF) throughout the stellar and substellar regimes and find that the IC 348 IMF is very similar to that found for the Trapezium cluster, with both cluster IMFs having a mode between 0.2–0.08 ⊙. In particular, we find that, similar to our results for the Trapezium, brown dwarfs constitute only one in four of the sources in the IC 348 cluster. We show that a modest secondary peak forms in the substellar IC 348 K-band luminosity function (KLF), corresponding to the same mass range responsible for a similar KLF peak found in the Trapezium. We interpret this KLF peak as either evidence for a corresponding secondary IMF peak at the deuterium burning limit or as arising from a feature in the substellar mass-luminosity relation that is not predicted by current theoretical models. Finally, we find that IC 348 displays radial variations of its subsolar (0.5–0.08 ⊙) IMF on a parsec scale. Whatever mechanism that is breaking the universality of the IMF on small spatial scales in IC 348 does not appear to be acting on the brown dwarf population, whose relative size does not vary with distance from the cluster center.

Due to its youth, proximity and richness the Orion Nebula Cloud (ONC) is an ideal testbed to obtain a comprehensive view on the Initial Mass Function (IMF) down to the planetary mass regime. Using the HAWK-I camera at the VLT, we have obtained an unprecedented deep and wide near-infrared JHK mosaic of the ONC (90% completeness at K~19.0mag, 22'x28). Applying the most recent isochrones and accounting for the contamination of background stars and galaxies, we find that ONC's IMF is bimodal with distinct peaks at about 0.25 and 0.025 M_sun separated by a pronounced dip at the hydrogen burning limit (0.08 M_sun), with a depth of about a factor 2-3 below the log-normal distribution. Apart from ~920 low-mass stars (M < 1.4 M_sun) the IMF contains ~760 brown dwarf (BD) candidates and ~160 isolated planetary mass object (IPMO) candidates with M > 0.005 M_sun, hence about ten times more substellar candidates than known before. The substellar IMF peak at 0.025 M_sun could be caused by BDs and IPMOs which have been ejected from multiple systems during the early star-formation process or from circumstellar disks.

Context. The presence of young massive stars in the Galactic Centre (GC) raises questions about how such stars could form near the massive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Furthermore, the shape of the initial mass function (IMF) in this region seems to differ from its standard Salpeter/Kroupa law. Due to observational challenges such as extreme extinction and crowding, our understanding of the stellar population in this region remains limited, with spectroscopic data available only for selected small and comparably bright sources. Aims. We aim to improve our knowledge about the distribution and the IMF of young, massive, stars in the vicinity of Sgr A*. Methods. We used intermediate band (IB) photometry to identify candidates for massive young stars. To ensure robust classification, we applied three different, but complementary methods: Bayesian inference, a basic neural network, and a fast gradient-boosted trees algorithm. Results. We obtain spectral energy distributions for 6590 stars, 1181 of which have been previously classified spectroscopically. We identify 351 stars that are classified as early types by all three classification methods, with 155 of them being newly identified candidates. The radial density profiles for late and early-type stars fit well with broken power laws, revealing a break radius of 9.2 ± 0.6″ for early-type stars. The late-type stars show a core-like distribution around Sgr A* while the density of the early-type stars increases steeply towards the black hole, consistent with previous work. We infer a top-heavy IMF of the young stars near Sgr A* (R &lt; 9″), with a power-law of 1.6 ± 0.1. At greater distances from Sgr A* a standard Salpeter/Kroupa IMF can explain the data. Additionally, we demonstrate that IB photometry can also constrain the metallicities of late-type stars, estimating metallicities for over 600 late-type stars. Conclusions. The variation of the IMF with radial distance from Sgr A* suggests that different mechanisms of star formation may have been at work in this region. The top-heavy IMF in the innermost region is consistent with star formation in a disc around Sgr A*.

Recent results on the non-universality of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) have shown strong evidence of IMF variations with galaxy velocity dispersion, with a corresponding impact on other stellar population parameters, line indices and colours. Using a set of stellar population models with varying IMF slopes, we provide additional caveats on the assumption of a universal IMF. The present study shows that the derived star formation histories of early-type galaxies vary significantly with the IMF slope. For instance, a steepening in the slope of a single power-law IMF decreases substantially, by a factor of up to four, the contribution of the old stellar populations to the total light/mass. This trend is milder for a segmented-like IMF shape, where the contribution of the very low mass stars is decreased. It is also shown that, by tuning each IMF slope to its prescribed value according to each galaxy velocity dispersion, a sample of early-type galaxies covering a range of masses yield comparable star formation histories. On the one hand, a small contribution from relatively young stellar populations appear in the star formation histories of most massive elliptical galaxies when adopting a steep IMF. On the other hand, we find that low mass early-type galaxies that look like genuinely young objects with a standard IMF (i.e. ``baby elliptical galaxies``), turn out to be older when a slightly flatter IMF is employed. In summary, the use of a non-universal IMF, tuned according to the velocity dispersion of the galaxy, seems to provide more consistent results.

view Abstract Citations (31) References (41) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Proto--Brown Dwarfs. I. Methods and Results for High-Latitude Clouds Pound, Marc W. ; Blitz, Leo Abstract We describe a method for finding substellar-mass self-gravitating clumps ("proto-brown dwarfs") in nearby molecular clouds, using millimeter-wave telescopes. This method represents a novel approach to looking for brown dwarfs and, for the nearest molecular clouds, has a greater mass sensitivity than traditional methods. We describe how the method can distinguish between various functional forms of the low-mass (<0.2 Msun) stellar initial mass function, which is currently poorly constrained. We present results of a search for proto-brown dwarfs in high galactic latitude molecular clouds. The clouds have relatively low densities [n(H2) ≲ 104 cm-3], are at an average distance of 100 pc, and are apparently not forming stars. We find little unambiguous evidence for self-gravitating objects of any mass in them, although there are clearly clumps with masses as low as 3 MJupiter. We find two clumps in MBM 12(=L1457), the nearest molecular cloud to the sun, which have luminous masses within a factor of 3 of that needed to be gravitationally bound. One of these has a dense core which appears to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. If so, then it is the first known self-gravitating core in a high-latitude cloud. The mean pressure in the clumps is P/k = 2.9 × 105 K cm-3, at least one order of magnitude higher than the general ISM pressure. We therefore conclude that either the clumps are transient structures in regions of typical ISM pressure, or the clouds themselves are short-lived objects in overpressured regions. In the latter case, the clouds will disperse in less than about 106 yr. The search for pro to-brown dwarfs is being expanded to include known star-forming regions in the Ophiuchus and Taurus complexes. The results in Ophiuchus and Taurus will tightly constrain the functional form of the stellar initial mass function at very low masses regardless of whether or not any proto-brown dwarfs are found. The present results already exclude a single power-law initial mass function with index ≳2. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: November 1993 DOI: 10.1086/173394 Bibcode: 1993ApJ...418..328P Keywords: ISM: CLOUDS; ISM: INDIVIDUAL ALPHANUMERIC: L1257; ISM: STRUCTURE; RADIO CONTINUUM: STARS; STARS: LOW-MASS; BROWN DWARFS full text sources ADS | data products SIMBAD (14) Related Materials (2) Erratum: 1995ApJ...444..487P Part 2: 1995ApJ...444..270P

We report the results of deep infrared observations of brown dwarf candidates in the Trapezium Cluster in Orion. Analysis of the JHK color-color diagram indicates that a large fraction (~65% ± 15%) of the observed sources exhibit infrared-excess emission. This suggests the extreme youth of these objects and, in turn, provides strong independent confirmation of the existence of a large population of substellar objects in the cluster. Moreover, this suggests that the majority of these substellar objects are presently surrounded by circumstellar disks similar to the situation for the stellar population of the cluster. This evidence for a high initial disk frequency (>50%) around cluster members of all masses, combined with the smooth continuity of the cluster's initial mass function across the hydrogen-burning limit, suggests that a single physical mechanism is likely responsible for producing the entire cluster mass spectrum down to near the deuterium-burning limit. The results may also indicate that even substellar objects are capable of forming with systems of planetary companions.

NGC 6611 is the massive young cluster (2–3 Myr) that ionizes the Eagle Nebula. We present very deep photometric observations of the central region of NGC 6611 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope and the following filters: ACS/WFC F775W and F850LP and NIC2 F110W and F160W, loosely equivalent to ground-based IZJH filters. This survey reaches down to I∼ 26 mag. We construct the initial mass function (IMF) from ∼1.5 M⊙ well into the brown dwarf regime (down to ∼0.02 M⊙). We have detected 30–35 brown dwarf candidates in this sample. The low-mass IMF is combined with a higher-mass IMF constructed from the ground-based catalogue from Oliveira et al. We compare the final IMF with those of well-studied star-forming regions: we find that the IMF of NGC 6611 more closely resembles that of the low-mass star-forming region in Taurus than that of the more massive Orion Nebula Cluster. We conclude that there seems to be no severe environmental effect in the IMF due to the proximity of the massive stars in NGC 6611.

The history of the initial mass function (IMF) in starburst regions is reviewed. The IMFs are no longer believed to be top-heavy, although some super star clusters, whether in starburst regions or not, could be. General observations of the IMF are discussed to put the starburst results in perspective. Observed IMF variations seem to suggest that the IMF varies a little with environment in the sense that denser and more massive clusters produce more massive stars, and perhaps more brown dwarfs too, compared to intermediate-mass stars.

The Taurus star forming region has an unusual core mass function (CMF) and an unusual initial mass function (IMF).We show that the unusual IMF of Taurus may well be a direct result of all of the stars only forming in cores of a few M⊙. This produces a two-component IMF consisting of ∼ 1M⊙ stars that remain in cores, and low-mass stars and brown dwarfs that are ejected from cores.