Related papers: Variability of Brown Dwarfs
There are a few different mechanisms that can cause white dwarf stars to vary in brightness, providing opportunities to probe the physics, structures, and formation of these compact stellar remnants. The observational characteristics of the…
Recent discoveries of variable brown dwarfs have provided us with a new window into their three-dimensional cloud structure. The highest variables are found at the L/T transition, where the cloud cover is thought to break up, but…
Brown dwarfs of a variety of spectral types have been observed to be photometrically variable. Previous studies have focused on objects at the L/T transition, where the iron and silicate clouds in L dwarfs break up or dissipate. However,…
The mass domain where massive extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs overlap is still poorly understood due to the paucity of brown dwarfs orbiting close to solar-type stars, the so-called brown dwarf desert. In this paper we collect all of…
Models of brown dwarf atmospheres suggest they exhibit complex physical behaviour. Observations have shown that they are indeed dynamic, displaying small photometric variations over timescales of hours. Here I report results of infrared…
The lowest-mass stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets present challenges and opportunities for understanding dynamics and cloud formation processes in low-temperature atmospheres. For brown dwarfs, the formation, variation and rapid…
The rotational spectral modulation (spectro-photometric variability) of brown dwarfs is usually interpreted as a sign of the presence of inhomogeneous cloud covers in the atmosphere. This paper aims at exploring the role of temperature…
Theoretical arguments and observations suggest that the atmospheres of Brown Dwarfs and planets are very dynamic on chemical and on physical time scales. The modelling of such substellar atmospheres has, hence, been much more demanding than…
We present a new suite of atmosphere models with flexible cloud parameters to investigate the effects of clouds on brown dwarfs across the L/T transition. We fit these models to a sample of 13 objects with well-known masses, distances, and…
The transition between the L dwarf and T dwarf spectral classes is one of the most remarkable along the stellar/brown dwarf Main Sequence, separating sources with photospheres containing mineral condensate clouds from those containing…
Growing observational evidence has suggested active meteorology in atmospheres of brown dwarfs (BDs) and directly imaged extrasolar giant planets (EGPs). In particular, a number of surveys have shown that near-IR brightness variability is…
The difference in formation process between binary stars and planetary systems is reflected in their composition as well as their orbital architecture, particularly orbital eccentricity as a function of orbital period. It is suggested here…
Brown dwarfs that are short period ($<10\,$day) companions to actively flaring M dwarfs may provide a context to directly observe flare-driven photochemistry and structural changes in an extrasolar planet-like atmosphere. To assess the…
Straddling the traditional realms of the planets and the stars, objects below the edge of the main sequence have such unique properties, and are being discovered in such quantities, that one can rightly claim that a new field at the…
L dwarfs exhibit low-level, rotationally-modulated photometric variability generally associated with heterogeneous, cloud-covered atmospheres. The spectral character of these variations yields insight into the particle sizes and vertical…
The last few years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of exoplanets known and in the range of methods for characterising their atmospheric properties. At the same time, new discoveries of increasingly cooler brown dwarfs have pushed…
We present a photometric variability survey of young planetary-mass objects using the New Technology Telescope in the Js and Ks bands. Surface gravity plays an important role in the atmospheric structure of brown dwarfs, as young low…
Hot white dwarfs with carbon-dominated atmospheres (hot DQs) are a cryptic class of white dwarfs. In addition to their deficiency of hydrogen and helium, most of these stars are highly magnetic, and a large fraction vary in luminosity. This…
Giant planets and brown dwarfs play a crucial role in star and planet formation, as they are situated at the boundary between planets and stars with uncertain formation mechanisms. Previous observational searches for the formation boundary…
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…