Related papers: Confronting Substellar Theoretical Models with Ste…
The physical properties of brown dwarf companions found to orbit nearby, solar-type stars can be benchmarked against independent measures of their mass, age, chemical composition, and other parameters, offering insights into the evolution…
We present a systematic study of the physical properties of late-M dwarfs based on high-quality dynamical mass measurements and near-infrared (NIR) spectra. We use astrometry from Keck NGS and LGS AO imaging to determine orbits for late-M…
Observational tests of stellar and Galactic chemical evolution call for the joint knowledge of a star's physical parameters, detailed element abundances, and precise age. For cool main-sequence (MS) stars the abundances of many elements can…
Deriving precise stellar ages is a challenging task. Consequently, age-dependent relations - such as the age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relations of the Milky Way, or the age-rotation-activity relation of low-mass stars - are…
We present the full results of our decade-long astrometric monitoring programs targeting 31 ultracool binaries with component spectral types M7-T5. Joint analysis of resolved imaging from Keck Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope and…
White dwarf stars have been used for decades as precise and accurate age indicators. This work presents a test of the reliability of white dwarf total ages when spectroscopic observations are available. We conduct follow-up spectroscopy of…
Substellar multiplicity is a key outcome of the formation process. The biggest challenge for the next decade will be to distinguish between the formation history, environmental conditions, and dynamical evolution leading to the least…
Context: Brown dwarfs exhibit complex atmospheric signatures, and their properties depend sensitively on effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity. Several physical properties of brown dwarfs in binary systems can be well…
The brown dwarf desert describes a range of orbital periods (<5 years) in which fewer brown dwarf-mass companions have been observed around Sun-like stars, when compared to planets and low mass stellar companions. It is therefore theorised…
We have obtained HST Planetary Camera observations of a total of fifty-three low-mass (M < 0.3 M_solar) members of the Hyades cluster. Nine of these stars are resolved as binaries, with separations between 0.1 and 3.1 arcseconds, while a…
Radial velocity searches for substellar mass companions have focused primarily on stars older than 1 Gyr. Increased levels of stellar activity in young stars hinders the detection of solar system analogs and therefore there has been a…
The Upper Scorpius OB association is the nearest region of recent massive star formation and thus an important benchmark for investigations concerning stellar evolution and planet formation timescales. We present nine EBs in Upper Scorpius,…
It is now well established that a large fraction of the low-mass stars are binaries or higher order multiples. Similarly a sizable fraction have giant planets. In contrast to these, the situation for brown dwarf companions is complicated:…
We present the current status of the analytic theory of brown dwarf evolution and the lower mass limit of the hydrogen burning main sequence stars. In the spirit of a simplified analytic theory we also introduce some modifications to the…
We have measured high-precision parallaxes for a large sample of candidate young (~10-100 Myr) and intermediate-age (~100-600 Myr) ultracool dwarfs, with spectral types ranging from M8 to T2.5. These objects are compelling benchmarks for…
One of the most effective ways to test stellar evolutionary models is to measure dynamical masses for binary systems at a range of temperatures. In this paper, we present orbits of three young K+M binary systems in Taurus (Hubble~4, FF~Tau,…
In near-infrared NaCo observations of the young brown dwarf 2MASS J0041353-562112, we discovered a companion a little less than a magnitude fainter than the primary. The binary candidate has a separation of 143 mas, the spectral types are…
Brown dwarfs occupy the important region in the mass range between stars and planets. Their existence, ambigious until only recently, and their properties give insight into stellar and planetary formation. We present statistical results of…
We analyse pre-Main Sequence evolutionary tracks for low mass stars with masses $m \le 1.4 \msol$ based on the Baraffe et al. (1998) input physics. We also extend the recent Chabrier et al. (2000) evolutionary models based on dusty…
Substellar objects such as brown dwarfs and planets are generally expected to remain detached from their main-sequence host stars unless orbital decay or stellar expansion brings them into contact, leading to rapid engulfment and…