Related papers: Finding benchmark brown dwarfs to probe the IMF as…

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…

Infrared excess is an important probe of sub-stellar companions and/or debris disks around white dwarfs (WDs). Such systems are still rare for in-depth understanding of their formation and long-term evolution. One of the largest…

White dwarf stars have been used for decades as precise and accurate age indicators. This work presents a test of the reliability of white dwarf total ages when spectroscopic observations are available. We conduct follow-up spectroscopy of…

At a distance of 2~pc, our nearest brown dwarf neighbor, Luhman 16 AB, has been extensively studied since its discovery 3 years ago, yet its most fundamental parameter -- the masses of the individual dwarfs -- has not been constrained with…

Low-mass stars belonging to the M spectral type are the most numerous stars in our Galaxy, amounting to about two-thirds in number, and are found at the bottom of the main sequence in the H-R diagram. %Multi-wavelength studies on…

The determination of the brown dwarf binary fraction may contribute to the understanding of the substellar formation mechanisms. Unresolved brown dwarf binaries may be revealed through their peculiar spectra or the discrepancy between…

We present the culmination of our near-infrared survey of the optically spectroscopically identified white dwarf stars from the McCook & Sion catalog, conducted using photometric data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey final All Sky Data…

Stellar-substellar binary systems are quite rare, and provide interesting benchmarks. They constrain the complex physics of substellar atmospheres, because several physical parameters of the substellar secondary can be fixed from the much…

Brown dwarfs bridge the gap between stars and planets, providing valuable insight into both planetary and stellar formation mechanisms. Yet the census of transiting brown dwarf companions, in particular around M dwarf stars, remains…

Direct imaging has led to the discovery of several giant planet and brown dwarf companions. These imaged companions populate a mass, separation and age domain (mass>1MJup, orbits>5AU, age<1Gyr) quite distinct from the one occupied by…

We present first results from a deep (J = 18.7), wide-field (6.5 square degrees) infrared (ZYJHK) survey in the Upper Sco association conducted within the science verification phase of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey Galactic Cluster…

Studies of fundamental parameters of very low-mass objects are indispensable to provide tests of stellar evolution models that are used to derive theoretical masses of brown dwarfs and planets. However, only objects with dynamically…

Aims. The brown dwarf (BD) formation process has not yet been completely understood. To shed more light on the differences and similarities between star and BD formation processes, we study and compare the disk fraction among both kinds of…

*Abbreviated abstract* Context: Brown dwarfs in the spectral range L9-T3.5, within the so called L/T transition, have been shown to be variable at higher amplitudes and with greater frequency than other field dwarfs. [...] Now, more…

We present the results of a search for companions to young brown dwarfs in the Taurus and Chamaeleon I star forming regions (1/2-3 Myr). We have used WFPC2 on board HST to obtain F791W and F850LP images of 47 members of these regions that…

This paper summarizes the results of over 17 years of work searching for low mass stellar and substellar companions to more than 370 nearby white dwarfs. Roughly 60 low mass, unevolved companions were found and studied all together, with…

Whether BDs form as stars through gravitational collapse ("star-like") or BDs and some very low-mass stars constitute a separate population which form alongside stars comparable to the population of planets, e.g. through circumstellar disk…

Analysis of initial observations from near-infrared sky surveys has shown that the resulting photometric catalogues, combined with far-red optical data, provide an extremely effective method of finding isolated, very low-temperature objects…

We review the available near- and mid-infrared photometry for white dwarfs obtained from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) and by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Both data sets have recently been used to seek white dwarfs with infrared…

We conduct a statistical analysis of a combined sample of direct imaging data, totalling nearly 250 stars. The stars cover a wide range of ages and spectral types, and include five detections ($\kappa$ And b, two $\sim$60 M$_{\rm J}$ brown…