Related papers: Modeling Polarization Signals from Cloudy Brown Dw…

Recent atmospheric models for brown dwarfs suggest that the existence of clouds in substellar objects is not needed to reproduce their spectra, nor their rotationally-induced photometric variability, believed to be due to the heterogeneous…

(Abridged). We report on the linear polarimetric observations in the Johnson I filter of 44 M6-L7.5 ultracool dwarfs (2800-1400 K). Eleven (10 L and 1 M) dwarfs appear to have significant linear polarization (P = 0.2-2.5%). We have compared…

Theoretical analysis and observational evidences indicate that a brown dwarf with effective temperature greater than 1400 K would have dust cloud in its atmosphere. In this letter, we show that dust scattering should yield polarized…

While scattering of light by atoms and molecules yields large amount of polarization at the B-band of both T- and L-dwarfs, scattering by dust grains in cloudy atmosphere of L-dwarfs gives rise to significant polarization at the far-optical…

Ultra-cool dwarfs of the L spectral type (Teff=1400-2200K) are known to have dusty atmospheres. Asymmetries of the dwarf surface may arise from rotationally-induced flattening and dust-cloud coverage, and may result in non-zero linear…

Brown dwarfs were recently found to display rotational modulations, commonly attributed to cloud cover of varying thickness, possibly modulated by planetary-scale waves. However, the long-term, continuous, high-precision monitoring data to…

The binary brown dwarf WISE J104915.57$-$531906.1 (also Luhman 16AB), composed of a late L and early T dwarf, is a prototypical L/T transition flux reversal binary located at only 2 pc distance. Luhman 16B is a known variable whose light…

Grain alignment theory has reached the stage where quantitative predictions of the degree of alignment and its variations with optical depth are possible. With the goal of studying the effect of clumpiness on the sub-millimeter and far…

Context. Photometric monitoring of the variability of brown dwarfs can provide useful information about the structure of clouds in their cold atmospheres. The brown-dwarf binary system Luhman 16AB is an interesting target for such a study,…

Recent observation of linear optical polarization from brown dwarfs confirms the dust hypothesis in the atmospheres of brown dwarfs with effective temperature higher than 1400 K. The observed polarization could arise due to dust scattering…

The re-emergence of the 0.99 $\mu$m FeH feature in brown dwarfs of early- to mid-T spectral type has been suggested as evidence for cloud disruption where flux from deep, hot regions below the Fe cloud deck can emerge. The same mechanism…

Polarized emission from aligned dust is a crucial tool for studies of magnetism in the ISM and a troublesome contaminant for studies of CMB polarization. In each case, an understanding of the significance of the polarization signal requires…

(Sub-)Millimeter observations of the polarized emission of aligned aspherical dust grains enable us to study the magnetic fields within protoplanetary disk. However, the interpretation of these observations is complex. One must consider the…

Our aim is to study the polarization of thermal dust emission to see if the alignment of grain by radiative torques could explain the observed relation between the degree of polarization and the intensity in dense cores. Predictions are…

Extremely large telescopes (ELTs) provide an opportunity to observe surface inhomogeneities for ultracool objects including M dwarfs, brown dwarfs (BDs), and gas giant planets via Doppler imaging and spectro-photometry techniques. These…

Emission spectroscopy is an invaluable tool for probing the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and exoplanets, but interpretations based on flux spectra alone often suffer from degeneracies among temperature structure, chemical composition, and…

The atmospheres of brown dwarfs orbiting in close proximity to their parent white dwarf represent some of the most extreme irradiated environments known. Understanding their complex dynamical mechanisms pushes the limits of theoretical and…

Time-resolved observations of brown dwarfs' rotational modulations provide powerful insights into the properties of condensate clouds in ultra-cool atmospheres. Multi-wavelength light curves reveal cloud vertical structures, condensate…

We present for the first time a coherent model of the polarized Galactic synchrotron and thermal dust emissions which are the main diffuse foreground for the measurement of the polarized power spectra of the CMB fluctuations with the Planck…

Using a novel wide-slit, multi-object approach with the GMOS spectrograph on the 8-meter Gemini South telescope, we have obtained precise time-series spectrophotometry of the binary brown dwarf Luhman 16 at optical wavelengths over two full…