Related papers: Variability of Brown Dwarfs
Evolutionary models for massive stars, accounting for rotational mixing effects, do not predict any core-processed material at the surface of B dwarfs with low rotational velocities. Contrary to theoretical expectations, we present a…
Volatile loss from exoplanetary atmospheres and its possible implications for the longevity of habitable surface conditions is a topic of vigorous debate currently. The vast majority of the habitable zone terrestrial-like exoplanets known…
Brown dwarf spectra are rich in information revealing of the chemical and physical processes operating in their atmospheres. We apply a recently developed atmospheric retrieval tool to an ensemble of late T-dwarf (600-800K) near infrared…
Over the past few years monitoring programs have shown ultra cool dwarfs (UCDs) to be photometrically variable. Of the 60 sources monitored in the field and some 120 monitored in clusters, about 40% show variability in both cases. For mid…
Brown dwarfs and planetary-mass companions display rotationally modulated photometric variability, especially those near the L/T transition. This variability is commonly attributed to top-of-atmosphere (TOA) inhomogeneities, with proposed…
Massive early-type stars vary; low-mass late-type brown dwarfs vary, too. I will make a short, but illustrative, summary of my previous studies on stellar and sub-stellar photometric variability (including the discovery of the most variable…
This White Paper, submitted to the National Academy of Sciences' Astro2010 Decadal Review Committee, focuses on 2 central themes in the study of young brown dwarfs -- their formation mechanism and disk characteristics -- which are of direct…
We conjecture that brown dwarfs are substellar objects because they have been ejected from small newborn multiple systems which have decayed in dynamical interactions. In this view, brown dwarfs are stellar embryos for which the star…
We present a kinematic analysis of 152 low surface gravity M7-L8 dwarfs by adding 8 parallaxes, 38 radial velocities, and 19 proper motions. We find 39 objects to be high-likelihood or bona fide members of nearby moving groups, 92 objects…
We present results from the first hydrodynamical star formation calculation to demonstrate that brown dwarfs are a natural and frequent product of the collapse and fragmentation of a turbulent molecular cloud. The brown dwarfs form via the…
We present evolutionary calculations for very-low-mass stars and brown dwarfs based on synthetic spectra and non-grey atmosphere models which include dust formation and opacity, i.e. objects with $\te\simle 2800$ K. The interior of the most…
The discovery of large numbers of young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs over the last decade has made it possible to investigate star formation and early evolution in a previously unexplored mass regime. In this review, we begin by…
[ABRIDGED] We report the results of a $J$ band search for cloud-related variability in the atmospheres of 62 L4-T9 dwarfs using the Du Pont 2.5-m telescope at Las Campanas Observatory and the Canada France Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. We…
We have conducted a photometric monitoring program of 3 field late-L brown dwarfs looking for evidence of non-axisymmetric structure or temporal variability in their photospheres. The observations were performed using Spitzer/IRAC 4.5 and 8…
As brown dwarfs and young giant planets cool down, they are known to experience various chemical transitions --- for example from CO rich L-dwarfs to methane rich T-dwarfs. Those chemical transitions are accompanied by spectral transitions…
We show that the total habitable volume in the atmospheres of cool brown dwarfs with effective temperatures of $\sim 250$-$350$ K is possibly larger by two orders of magnitude than that of Earth-like planets. We also study the role of…
Photometric I band light curves of 21 ultra cool M and L dwarfs are presented. Variability with amplitudes of 0.01 to 0.055 magnitudes (RMS) with typical timescales of an hour to several hours are discovered in half of these objects.…
In this review, we summarize our present knowledge of the behaviour of the mass-radius relationship from solar-type stars down to terrestrial planets, across the regime of substellar objects, brown dwarfs and giant planets. Particular…
The observational properties of brown dwarfs pose challenges to the theory of star formation. Because their mass is much smaller than the typical Jeans mass of interstellar clouds, brown dwarfs are most likely formed through secondary…
We developed a simple, physical and self-consistent cloud model for brown dwarfs and young giant exoplanets. We compared different parametrisations for the cloud particle size, by either fixing particle radii, or fixing the mixing…