Related papers: Angular momentum and disk evolution in very low ma…
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…
Characterization of the properties of young brown dwarfs are important to constraining the formation of objects at the extreme low-mass end of the IMF. While young brown dwarfs share many properties with solar-mass T Tauri stars,…
Planets have been detected around a variety of stars, including low-mass objects, such as brown dwarfs. However, such extreme cases are challenging for planet formation models. Recent sub-millimeter observations of disks around brown dwarf…
We present new models for the rotational evolution of solar-like stars between 1 Myr and 10 Gyr with the aim to reproduce the distributions of rotational periods observed for star forming regions and young open clusters within this age…
The study of rotation and activity in low-mass stars or brown dwarfs of spectral classes M and L has seen enormous progress during the last years. I summarize the results from different works that measured activity, rotation, and sometimes…
We suggest that low-mass hydrogen-burning stars like the Sun should sometimes form with massive extended discs; and we show, by means of radiation hydrodynamic simulations, that the outer parts of such discs (R>100 AU) are likely to…
The formation of brown dwarfs via encounters between proto-stars has been confirmed with high-resolution numerical simulations with a restricted treatment of the thermal conditions. The new results indicate that young brown dwarfs (BDs)…
To understand how planetary spin evolves and traces planet formation processes, we measure rotational line broadening in eight planetary-mass objects (PMOs) of various ages (1--800 Myr) using near-infrared high-resolution spectra from…
The study of the properties of disks around young brown dwarfs can provide important clues on the formation of these very low-mass objects and on the possibility of forming planetary systems around them. The presence of warm dusty disks…
Recent observations have suggested that circumstellar disks may commonly form around young stellar objects. Although the formation of circumstellar disks can be a natural result of the conservation of angular momentum in the parent cloud,…
The statistical properties of circumstellar disks around young stars are important for constraining theoretical models for the formation and early evolution of planetary systems. In this brief review, I survey the literature related to…
We present a model for the rotational evolution of a young, solar-mass star interacting magnetically with an accretion disk. As in a previous paper (Paper I), the model includes changes in the star's mass and radius as it descends the…
We present a survey for photometric variability in young, low-mass brown dwarfs with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The 23 objects in our sample show robust signatures of youth and share properties with directly-imaged exoplanets. We present…
Recent surveys have identified sub-stellar objects down to planetary masses in nearby star-forming regions. Reliable determination of the disk frequency in young brown dwarfs is of paramount importance to understanding their origin. Here we…
We suggest that a high proportion of brown dwarfs are formed by gravitational fragmentation of massive, extended discs around Sun-like stars. We argue that such discs should arise frequently, but should be observed infrequently, precisely…
A large fraction of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars may form by gravitational fragmentation of relatively massive (a few 0.1 Msun), extended (a few hundred AU) discs around Sun-like stars. We present an ensemble of radiative hydrodynamic…
Most stars are born in clusters and the resulting gravitational interactions between cluster members may significantly affect the evolution of circumstellar discs and therefore the formation of planets and brown dwarfs. Recent findings…
Major photometric monitoring campaigns of star-forming regions in the past decade have provided rich rotation period distributions of pre-main-sequence stars. The rotation periods span more than an order of magnitude in period, with most…
The radial velocities and direct imaging observations of exoplanets have suggested that the frequency of giant planets may decrease for intermediate-mass stars ($2.5-8\,M_\odot$). The key mechanism that could hinder their formation remains…
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…