Related papers: A universal brown dwarf desert formed between plan…
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…
Sun-like stars are known to host a paucity of brown dwarf companions at close separations. Direct imaging surveys of intermediate-mass stars have suggested that the brown dwarf desert may be fundamentally a feature in the mass ratio.…
Brown dwarfs, which straddle the mass range between stars and planets, appear to be common both in the solar neighborhood and in star-forming regions. Their ubiquity makes the question of their origin an important one both for our…
Direct imaging has confirmed the existence of substellar companions on wide orbits. To understand the formation and evolution mechanisms of these companions, the full population properties must be characterized. We aim at detecting giant…
Understanding the dominant brown dwarf and giant planet formation processes, and finding out whether these processes rely on completely different mechanisms or share common channels represents one of the major challenges of astronomy and…
The formation mechanisms and chemical compositions of brown dwarfs likely span a diverse range. If they are formed predominantly in isolation by gravitational collapse like dwarf stars then their compositions might follow those of dwarf…
We present a comprehensive Bayesian statistical analysis of brown dwarf companions to investigate the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed ``brown dwarf desert'' -- the notable paucity of brown dwarf companions at orbital…
Understanding demographic properties of planet populations and multiple star systems constrains theories of planet and star formation. Surveys for very low-mass companions to M-A type stars detect brown dwarfs from multiple star formation…
Brown dwarfs are intermediate objects between planets and stars. The lower end of the brown-dwarf mass range overlaps with the one of massive planets and therefore the distinction between planets and brown-dwarf companions may require to…
Direct imaging searches have begun to detect planetary and brown dwarf companions and to place constraints on the presence of giant planets at large separations from their host star. This work helps to motivate such planet searches by…
Recent studies have shown that close-in brown dwarfs in the mass range 35-55 M$_{\rm Jup}$ are almost depleted as companions to stars, suggesting that objects with masses above and below this gap might have different formation mechanisms.…
We show that the dearth of brown dwarfs in short-period orbits around Solar-mass stars - the brown dwarf desert - can be understood as a consequence of inward migration within an evolving protoplanetary disc. Brown dwarf secondaries forming…
Recent observations point to the presence of structured dust grains in the discs surrounding young brown dwarfs, thus implying that the first stages of planet formation take place also in the sub-stellar regime. Here, we investigate the…
To date, hundreds of sub-stellar objects with masses between $1-80\ M_{\rm Jup}$ have been detected orbiting main-sequence stars. The current convention uses the deuterium-burning limit, $M_c \approx 13 M_{\rm Jup}$ to divide this…
The formation of brown dwarfs (BDs) poses a key challenge to star formation theory. The observed dearth of nearby ($\leq 5$ AU) brown dwarf companions to solar-mass stars, known as the brown dwarf desert, as well as the tendency for…
Brown dwarfs, which occupy a fuzzy gap in mass between stars and planets, appear to be common both in the solar neighborhood and in star-forming regions. Their origin is a topic of significant current interest and debate. Some astronomers…
A large fraction of the observed brown dwarfs may form by gravitational fragmentation of unstable discs. This model reproduces the brown dwarf desert, and provides an explanation the existence of planetary-mass objects and for the binary…
Context. The observed scarcity of brown dwarfs in close orbits (within 10 au) around solar-type stars poses significant questions about the origins of these substellar companions. These questions impact our broader understanding of…
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…
The occurrence rate of young giant planets from direct imaging surveys is a fundamental tracer of the efficiency with which planets form and migrate at wide orbital distances. These measurements have progressively converged to a value of…