Related papers: Orbital migration and the brown dwarf desert
Finite eccentricities in mass-transferring eccentric binary systems can be explained by taking into account mass-loss and mass-transfer processes that often occur in these systems. These processes can be treated as perturbations to the…
The two dominant features in the distribution of orbital parameters for close-in exoplanets are the prevalence of circular orbits for very short periods, and the observation that planets on closer orbits tend to be heavier. The first…
Brown dwarfs and giant planets orbiting close to a host star are subjected to significant irradiation that can modify the properties of their atmospheres. In order to test the atmospheric models that are used to describe these systems, it…
Dozens of planets and brown dwarfs are known to orbit one component of tight stellar binaries ($a_{\rm bin} \lesssim 20$ au), despite circumstellar discs in such systems being truncated to radii of only $\sim (0.2-5)$ au. This presents a…
The masses of compact objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes are fundamental to astrophysics, but very difficult to measure. We present the results of an analysis of subluminous B (sdB) stars in close binary systems with…
The architecture of many exoplanetary systems is different from the solar system, with exoplanets being in close orbits around their host stars and having orbital periods of only a few days. We can expect interactions between the star and…
Variability studies are an important tool to investigate key properties of stars and brown dwarfs. From photometric monitoring we are able to obtain information about rotation and magnetic activity, which are expected to change in the mass…
Aims. There are a growing number of giant planets discovered moving around one stellar component of a binary star, most of which have very diverse eccentricity. These discoveries raise the question of their formation and long-term evolution…
We review four mechanisms for forming brown dwarfs: (i) turbulent fragmentation (producing very low-mass prestellar cores); (ii) gravitational instabilities in discs; (iii) dynamical ejection of stellar embryos from their placental cores;…
We present a detailed dynamical analysis of the orbital stability of the BD +20 2457 system, which features planets or brown dwarfs moving on relatively eccentric orbits. We find that the system exhibits strong dynamical instability on…
Most extrasolar planets currently known were discovered by means of an indirect method that measures the stellar wobble caused by the planet. We previously studied a triple system composed of a star and a nearby binary on circular coplanar…
A new view of disk evolution is emerging from self-consistent numerical simulation modeling of the formation of circumstellar disks from the direct collapse of prestellar cloud cores. This has implications for many aspects of star and…
Young brown dwarfs and directly-imaged exoplanets have enticingly similar photometric and spectroscopic characteristics, indicating that their cool, low gravity atmospheres should be studied in concert. Similarities between the peculiar…
Supermassive black hole binaries may form as a consequence of galaxy mergers. Both prograde and retrograde orbits have been proposed. We study a binary of a small mass ratio, q, in a retrograde orbit immersed in and interacting with a…
Over a quarter of white dwarfs have photospheric metal pollution, which is evidence for recent accretion of exoplanetary material. While a wide range of mechanisms have been proposed to account for this pollution, there are currently few…
(Abridged) In planetary systems with two or more giant planets, dynamical instabilities can lead to collisions or ejections through strong planet--planet scattering. Previous studies for simple initial configurations with two equal-mass…
Short-period binary star systems dissipate orbital energy through tidal interactions that lead to tighter, more circular orbits. When at least one star in a binary has evolved off of the main sequence, orbital circularization occurs for…
The majority of stars reside in multiple systems, especially binaries. The formation and early evolution of binaries is a longstanding problem in star formation that is not fully understood. In particular, how the magnetic field observed in…
In order to understand the atmospheres as well as the formation mechanism of giant planets formed outside our solar system, the next decade will require an investment in studies of isolated young brown dwarfs. In this white paper we…
Star-forming regions, characterized by dense environments, experience frequent encounters that significantly influence binary systems, leading to their hardening, softening, or ionization. We extend the Hut \& Bahcall formalism to derive an…