English

Three Brown Dwarfs Masquerading as High-Redshift Galaxies in JWST Observations

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2025-01-29 v1

Abstract

We report the spectroscopic identification of three brown dwarf candidates -- o005_s41280, o006_s00089, and o006_s35616 -- discovered in the RUBIES using James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) PRISM/CLEAR spectroscopy. We fit these sources with multiple substellar atmosphere models and present the atmospheric parameters, including effective temperature (TeffT_\mathrm{eff}), surface gravity, and other derived properties. The results suggest that o005_s41280 and o006_s35616, with TeffT_\mathrm{eff} in the ranges of 2100--2300 K and 1800--2000 K, are likely L dwarfs, while o006_s00089, with Teff<1000T_\mathrm{eff} < 1000 K, is consistent with a late T dwarf classification. The best-fit model spectra provide a reasonable match to the observed spectra. However, distinct residuals exist in the YY, JJ, and HH bands for the two L dwarf candidates, particularly for o006_s35616. Incorporating the extinction parameter into the fitting process can significantly reduce these residuals. The distance estimates indicate that these candidates are about 2 kpc away. The analysis of the color-color diagram using multiple JWST NIRcam photometry suggests that cooler T dwarfs, such as o006_s00089, overlap with little red dots (LRDs), while hotter L dwarfs, like o005_s41280 and o006_s35616, tend to contaminate the high-redshift galaxy cluster. These findings suggest a brown dwarf contamination rate of approximately 0.1% in extragalactic deep field surveys, with L dwarfs being more frequently detected than cooler T and Y dwarfs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.16648,
  title  = {Three Brown Dwarfs Masquerading as High-Redshift Galaxies in JWST Observations},
  author = {Zhijun Tu and Shu Wang and Xiaodian Chen and Jifeng Liu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.16648},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:21:10.692Z