Related papers: AB Doradus C: Age, Spectral Type, Orbit, and Compa…

The number of low-mass brown dwarfs and even free floating planetary mass objects in young nearby star-forming regions and associations is continuously increasing, offering the possibility to study the low-mass end of the IMF in greater…

We have measured the orbital parameters of seven close binaries, including six new objects, in a radial velocity survey of 38 objects comprising a hot subdwarf star with orbital periods ranging from ~0.17 to 3 d. One new system, GALEX…

We combine results from imaging searches for substellar objects in the sigma Orionis cluster and follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations to derive a census of the brown dwarf population in a region of 847 arcmin^2. We identify…

We have identified CFBDS J1458+10 as a 0.11" (2.6 AU) physical binary using Keck laser guide star adaptive optics imaging and have measured a distance of 23.1+/-2.4 pc to the system based on near-IR parallax data from CFHT. The…

[ABRIDGED] We present the results of a 3 year monitoring program of a sample of very low mass (VLM) field binaries using both astrometric and spectroscopic data obtained in conjunction with the laser guide star adaptive optics system on the…

The relationship between luminosity and mass is of fundamental importance for direct imaging studies of brown dwarf and planetary companions to stars. In principle this can be inferred from theoretical mass-luminosity models; however, these…

The spectral type is a key parameter in calibrating the temperature which is required to estimate the mass of young stars and brown dwarfs. We describe an approach developed to classify low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the Trapezium…

Some M-dwarfs around F-/G-type stars have been measured to be hotter and larger than predicted by stellar evolution models. Inconsistencies between observations and models need addressing with more mass, radius and luminosity measurements…

We present a survey for photometric variability in young, low-mass brown dwarfs with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The 23 objects in our sample show robust signatures of youth and share properties with directly-imaged exoplanets. We present…

The masses and temperatures of young low mass stars and brown dwarfs in star- forming regions are not yet well established because of uncertainties in the age of individual objects and the spectral type vs. temperature scale appropriate for…

Evolutionary models of pre-main sequence stars remain largely uncalibrated, especially for masses below that of the Sun, making each new dynamical mass and radius measurement a valuable test of theoretical models. Stellar mass dependent…

Masses and radii of transiting brown dwarfs can be measured directly in contrast to isolated field brown dwarfs, whose mass and radius inferences are model dependent. Therefore, transiting brown dwarfs are a testbed for the interior and…

Condensate clouds are a salient feature of L dwarf atmospheres, but have been assumed to play little role in shaping the spectra of the coldest T-type brown dwarfs. Here we report evidence of condensate opacity in the near-infrared spectrum…

Our aim is to investigate the nature and formation of brown dwarfs by adding a new well-characterised object to the small sample of less than 20 transiting brown dwarfs. One brown dwarf candidate was found by the KESPRINT consortium when…

After decades of brown dwarf discovery and follow-up, we can now infer the functional form of the mass distribution within 20 parsecs, which serves as a constraint on star formation theory at the lowest masses. Unlike objects on the main…

The physical properties of brown dwarf companions found to orbit nearby, solar-type stars can be benchmarked against independent measures of their mass, age, chemical composition, and other parameters, offering insights into the evolution…

The very young brown dwarf candidate ChaHa8 was recently discovered to have a close (~1AU) companion by means of radial velocity monitoring. We present additional radial velocity data obtained with UVES/VLT between 2007 and 2010, which…

We present new radial velocity and trigonometric parallax measurements indicating that the unusually red and photometrically variable T2 dwarf 2MASS J13243553+6358281 is a member of the young (~150 Myr) AB Doradus moving group based on its…

Tight binaries discovered in young, nearby associations, with known distances, are ideal targets to provide dynamical mass measurements to test the physics of evolutionary models at young ages and very low masses. We report for the first…

I review the optical and near-infrared spectral characteristics of the extremely cool dwarfs grouped under the new classification of type L. These include both very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, and we discuss the likely temperature…