English

Characterization of Stellar and Substellar Members in the Coma Berenices Star Cluster

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2018-08-08 v1 Astrophysics of Galaxies

Abstract

We have identified stellar and substellar members in the nearby star cluster Coma Berenices, using photometry, proper motions, and distances of a combination of 2MASS, UKIDSS, URAT1, and {\it Gaia}/DR2 data. Those with {\it Gaia}/DR2 parallax measurements provide the most reliable sample to constrain the distance, averaging 86.7~pc with a dispersion 7.1~pc, and the age 800\sim800~Myr, of the cluster. This age is older than the 400--600~Myr commonly adopted in the literature. Our analysis, complete within 5deg of the cluster radius, leads to identification of 192 candidates, among which, after field contamination is considered, about 148 are true members. The members have J3J\sim3~mag to 17.5\sim17.5~mag, corresponding to stellar masses 2.3--0.06~MM_\odot. The mass function of the cluster peaks around 0.3~MM_\odot and, in the sense of dN/dm=mαdN/dm = m^{-\alpha}, where NN is the number of members and mm is stellar mass, has a slope α0.49±0.03\alpha\approx 0.49\pm0.03 in the mass range 0.3--2.3~MM_\odot. This is much shallower than that of the field population in the solar neighborhood. The slope α=1.69±0.14\alpha=-1.69\pm0.14 from 0.3~MM_\odot to 0.06~MM_\odot, the lowest mass in our sample. The cluster is mass segregated and has a shape elongated toward the Galactic plane. Our list contains nine substellar members, including three new discoveries of an M8, an L1 and an L4 brown dwarfs, extending from the previously known coolest members of late-M types to even cooler types.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1806.08322,
  title  = {Characterization of Stellar and Substellar Members in the Coma Berenices Star Cluster},
  author = {Shih-Yun Tang and W. P. Chen and P. S. Chiang and Jessy Jose and Gregory J. Herczeg and Bertrand Goldman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.08322},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

Accepted by Astrophysical Journal