Related papers: The Formation and Early Evolution of Low-mass Star…
This chapter aims at providing the most complete review of both the emerging concepts and the latest observational results regarding the angular momentum evolution of young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. In the time since Protostars &…
Precise measurements of the fundamental properties of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are key to understanding the physics underlying their formation and evolution. While there has been great progress over the last decade in studying the…
Since the discovery of the first bona-fide brown dwarfs and extra-solar planets in 1995, the field of low mass stars and substellar objects has considerably progressed, both from theoretical and observational viewpoints.Recent developments…
We present evolutionary models for low mass stars and brown dwarfs ($m \le 1.2 \msol$) based on recent improvement of the theory: equation of state, atmosphere models, ... We concentrate on early evolutionary phases from the initial…
It is estimated that ~60% of all stars (including brown dwarfs) have masses below 0.2Msun. Currently, there is no consensus on how these objects form. I will briefly review the four main theories for the formation of low-mass objects:…
We present extensive calculations of the structure and the evolution of low-massstars in the range 0.07-0.8 $\msol$, for metallicities $-2.0\le \mh \le 0.0$. These calculations are based on the most recent description of the microphysics…
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…
These lectures attempt to expose the most important ideas, which have been proposed to explain the formation of stars with particular emphasis on the formation of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars. We first describe the important physical…
The formation of low-mass protostars and especially of brown dwarfs currently are ``hot topics'' in cool star research. The talks contributed to this splinter session discussed how low in mass and how low in luminosity objects might exist,…
We review the current state of observational work on the formation of brown dwarfs, focusing on their initial mass function, velocity and spatial distributions at birth, multiplicity, accretion, and circumstellar disks. The available…
The evolution of angular momentum is a key to our understanding of star formation and stellar evolution. The rotational evolution of solar-mass stars is mostly controlled by magnetic interaction with the circumstellar disc and angular…
Background: low-mass stars are the dominant product of the star formation process, and they trace star formation over the full range of environments, from isolated globules to clusters in the central molecular zone. In the past two decades,…
A review is presented of some of the ingredients, assumptions and techniques that are used in the computation of the structure and evolution of low-mass stars. Emphasis is placed on several ingredients which are still subject to…
I review efforts to determine the form and any lower limit to the initial mass function in the Galactic disk, using observations of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the field, young clusters and star forming regions. I focus on the…
Surveys of young star-forming regions have discovered a growing population of planetary-mass (<13 M_Jup) companions around young stars. There is an ongoing debate as to whether these companions formed like planets (that is, from the…
Brown dwarfs, which straddle the mass range between stars and planets, appear to be common both in the solar neighborhood and in star-forming regions. Their ubiquity makes the question of their origin an important one both for our…
In this review, we examine the successes and weaknesses of modern low-mass star and brown dwarf theory.(1) We first focus on the mechanical (equation of state) and thermal (atmosphere) properties and on the evolution. We then examine the…
We review recent theoretical progress aimed at understanding the formation and the early stages of evolution of giant planets, low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. Calculations coupling giant planet formation, within a modern version of the…
Variability studies are an important tool to investigate key properties of stars and brown dwarfs. From photometric monitoring we are able to obtain information about rotation and magnetic activity, which are expected to change in the mass…
Properties of nearby dwarf galaxies are briefly discussed. Dwarf galaxies vary widely in their star formation histories, the ages of their subpopulations, and in their enrichment history. Furthermore, many dwarf galaxies show evidence for…