Related papers: Giant planet and brown dwarf formation

"Free-floating, non-deuterium-burning, substellar objects" are isolated bodies of a few Jupiter masses found in very young open clusters and associations, nearby young moving groups and in the immediate vicinity of the Sun. They are neither…

Brown Dwarfs (BDs) are crucial objects in our understanding of both star and planet formation. However, there is still an unconcluded debate about which is the dominant formation mechanism of these objects. For this, it is mandatory to…

Context: We studied numerically the formation of giant planet (GP) and brown dwarf (BD) embryos in gravitationally unstable protostellar disks and compared our findings with directly-imaged, wide-orbit (>= 50 AU) companions known to-date.…

Ground-based and spacecraft telescopic observations, combined with an intensive modeling effort, have greatly enhanced our understanding of hot giant planets and brown dwarfs over the past ten years. Although these objects are all fluid,…

We review four mechanisms for forming brown dwarfs: (i) turbulent fragmentation (producing very low-mass prestellar cores); (ii) gravitational instabilities in discs; (iii) dynamical ejection of stellar embryos from their placental cores;…

The recent detection of the transit of very massive substellar companions (CoRoT-3b, Deleuil et al. 2008; CoRoT-15b, Bouchy et al. 2010; WASP-30b, Anderson et al. 2010; Hat-P-20b, Bakos et al. 2010) provides a strong constraint to planet…

Planet searches around evolved giant stars are bringing new insights to planet formation theories by virtue of the broader stellar mass range of the host stars compared to the solar-type stars that have been the subject of most current…

Giant impacts refer to collisions between two objects each of which is massive enough to be considered at least a planetary embryo. The putative collision suffered by the proto-Earth that created the Moon is a prime example, though most…

Several mechanisms have been proposed for the formation of brown dwarfs, but there is as yet no consensus as to which -- if any -- are operative in nature. Any theory of brown dwarf formation must explain the observed statistics of brown…

This chapter reviews the definition of exoplanets and of brown dwarfs. Emphasis is given to the separation of these two populations. A traditional view is to declare {\guillemotleft} planet {\guillemotright} objects with a mass < 13 M Jup…

Brown dwarfs are commonly regarded as easily-observed templates for exoplanet studies, with comparable masses, physical sizes and atmospheric properties. There is indeed considerable overlap in the photospheric temperatures of the coldest…

We review five mechanisms for forming brown dwarfs: (i) turbulent fragmentation of molecular clouds, producing very low-mass prestellar cores by shock compression; (ii) collapse and fragmentation of more massive prestellar cores; (iii) disc…

In order to understand the atmospheres as well as the formation mechanism of giant planets formed outside our solar system, the next decade will require an investment in studies of isolated young brown dwarfs. In this white paper we…

We propose a comprehensive survey of giant planets ranging from close-in highly irradiated hot Jupiters to young, wide-orbit directly imaged planets. The combination of two established techniques for probing planetary atmospheric…

We review some of the characteristics of irradiated extrasolar giant planets (EGPs), in anticipation of their direct detection from the ground and from space. Spectral measurements are the key to unlocking their structural and atmospheric…

Gas giant planets play a fundamental role in shaping the orbital architecture of planetary systems and in affecting the delivery of volatile materials to terrestrial planets in the habitable zones. Current theories of gas giant planet…

The discovery of giant planets in wide orbits represents a major challenge for planet formation theory. In the standard core accretion paradigm planets are expected to form at radial distances $\lesssim 20$ au in order to form massive cores…

The large number of detected giant exoplanets offers the opportunity to improve our understanding of the formation mechanism, evolution, and interior structure of gas giant planets. The two main models for giant planet formation are core…

Planets are expected to conclude their growth through a series of giant impacts: energetic, global events that significantly alter planetary composition and evolution. Computer models and theory have elucidated the diverse outcomes of giant…

One of the most debated subjects in Astronomy since the discovery of exoplanets is how can we distinguish the most massive of such objects from very-low mass stars like Brown Dwarfs (BDs)? We have been looking for evidences of a difference…