Related papers: On the Formation of Brown Dwarfs

Spirals and streamers are the hallmarks of mass accretion during the early stages of star formation. We present the first observations of a large-scale spiral and a streamer towards a very young brown dwarf candidate in its early formation…

We present an analytical method for constraining the substellar initial mass function in globular clusters, based on the observed frequency of transit events. Globular clusters typically have very high stellar densities where close…

Context. Most observational studies so far point towards brown dwarfs sharing a similar formation mechanism as the one accepted for low mass stars. However, larger databases and more systematic studies are needed before strong conclusions…

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.…

The formation and evolution of brown dwarfs are currently "hot topics" in cool star research. Latest observations and modeling efforts on disks, accretion, outflows, spatial distribution, and binarity in the context of the formation by…

Our current understanding of the physical processes of star formation is reviewed, with emphasis on processes occurring in molecular clouds like those observed nearby. The dense cores of these clouds are predicted to undergo gravitational…

I present observations of a new faint double, 2MASS J11011926-7732383AB, toward the Chamaeleon I star-forming region. From optical and near-infrared images of the pair, I measure a separation of 1.44" and extract RIJHK_s photometry of the…

Wide gravitationally bound pairs of stars can be formed from adjacent prestellar cores that happen to move slowly enough relative to each other. These binaries are remnants of the primordial clustering. It is shown that the expected…

Almost by definition brown dwarfs are objects with masses below the hydrogen burning limit, around $0.07\ M_\odot$. Below this mass, objects never reach a steady state where they can fuse hydrogen. Here we demonstrate, in contrast to this…

This White Paper, submitted to the National Academy of Sciences' Astro2010 Decadal Review Committee, focuses on 2 central themes in the study of young brown dwarfs -- their formation mechanism and disk characteristics -- which are of direct…

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…

In this paper we discuss the nature and the possible formation scenarios of the companion of the brown dwarf 2MASS 1207334-393254. We initially discuss the basic physical properties of this object and conclude that, although from its…

While the recent microlensing discoveries of super-Earths orbiting two M dwarf stars have been taken as support for the core accretion mechanism of giant planet formation, we show here that these planets could also have been formed by the…

The current status of the problem of whether neutron stars can form, in close binary systems, by accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of white dwarfs is examined. We find that, in principle, both initially cold C+O white dwarfs in the high-mass…

Brown dwarfs constitute a missing link between low-mass stars and giant planets. Their atmospheres display chemical species typical of planets, and one could wonder whether they also have weather-like patterns. While brown dwarf surface…

In this short review, we summarize our present understanding (and non-understanding) of exoplanet formation, structure and evolution, in the light of the most recent discoveries. Recent observations of transiting massive brown dwarfs seem…

The large scale structure of a brown dwarf atmosphere is determined by an interplay of convection, radiation, dust formation, and gravitational settling, which possibly provides an explanation for the observed variability. The result is an…

We consider the formation of dwarf carbon stars via accretion from a carbon AGB companion in light of the new 107 object sample of Downes et al. (2004). This sample is now large enough to allow good mass determination via comparison of a…

We review the statistical properties of stars and brown dwarfs obtained from the first hydrodynamical simulation of star cluster formation to produce more than a thousand stars and brown dwarfs while simultaneously resolving the lowest mass…

We apply a simple, one-equation, galaxy formation model on top of the halos and subhalos of a high-resolution dark matter cosmological simulation to study how dwarf galaxies acquire their mass and, for better mass resolution, on over 10^5…