Related papers: New Evidence for a Substellar Luminosity Problem: …
We have been using Keck laser guide star adaptive optics to monitor the orbits of ultracool binaries, providing dynamical masses at lower luminosities and temperatures than previously available and enabling strong tests of theoretical…
By definition, brown dwarfs never reach the main-sequence, cooling and dimming over their entire lifetime, thus making substellar models challenging to test because of the strong dependence on age. Currently, most brown dwarfs with…
(Abridged) We present Keck, HST, and Gemini-North observations of the L4+L4 binary HD 130948BC which together span ~70% of the binary's orbital period. We determine a total dynamical mass of 0.109+/-0.002 Msun (114+/-2 Mjup). The flux ratio…
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…
Mass is the fundamental parameter that governs the evolution of stars, brown dwarfs, and gas-giant planets. Thus, direct mass measurements are essential to test the evolutionary and atmospheric models that underpin studies of these objects.…
We have been using Keck laser guide star adaptive optics to monitor the orbits of ultracool binaries, providing dynamical masses at lower luminosities and temperatures than previously available and enabling strong tests of theoretical…
The mass and age of substellar objects are degenerate parameters leaving the evolutionary state of brown dwarfs ambiguous without additional information. Theoretical models are normally used to help distinguish between old, massive brown…
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…
We present astrometric and spectroscopic observations confirming that two nearby G dwarf systems (Gliese 417 = BD+36 2162 and Gliese 584AB = eta CrB AB) have a widely separated, L dwarf, substellar companion. Using age estimates of the G…
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 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…
We present comprehensive orbital analyses and dynamical masses for the substellar companions Gl~229~B, Gl~758~B, HD~13724~B, HD~19467~B, HD~33632~Ab, and HD~72946~B. Our dynamical fits incorporate radial velocities, relative astrometry, and…
We report on nine wide common proper motion systems containing late-type M, L, or T companions. We confirm six previously reported companions, and identify three new systems. The ages of these systems are determined using diagnostics for…
The stellar mass-luminosity relation is poorly constrained by observations for high mass stars. We describe our program to find eclipsing massive binaries in the Magellanic Clouds using photometry of regions rich in massive stars, and our…
2MASS J03202839-0446358AB is a recently identified, late-type M dwarf/T dwarf spectroscopic binary system for which both the radial velocity orbit for the primary and spectral types for both components have been determined. By combining…
We present the results of a simulation to investigate the prospects of measuring mass, age, radius, metallicity and luminosity data for brown dwarfs in fully eclipsing binary systems around late K and early M dwarfs identified by…
The study of high contrast imaged brown dwarfs and exoplanets depends strongly on evolutionary models. To estimate the mass of a directly imaged substellar object, its extracted photometry or spectrum is used and adjusted with model spectra…
Brown dwarfs with well-determined ages, luminosities, and masses provide rare but valuable tests of low-temperature atmospheric and evolutionary models. We present the discovery and dynamical mass measurement of a substellar companion to HD…
We present preliminary non-grey model atmospheres and interiors for cool brown dwarfs. The resulting synthetic spectra are compared to available spectroscopic and photometric observations of the coolest brown dwarf yet discovered, Gl229B…
Astrometric observations of resolved binaries provide estimates of orbital periods and will eventually lead to measurement of dynamical masses. Only a few very low mass star and brown dwarf masses have been measured to date, and the…