Related papers: Brown Dwarfs: Toward a New Age Scale for Young Ope…
Using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the ESO 2.2m telescope at La Silla and the CPAPIR camera at the CTIO 1.5m telescope at Cerro Tololo, we have performed an extensive, multiband photometric survey of the open cluster IC2391 (D~146pc,…
SONYC - Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Clusters - is a survey program to investigate the frequency and properties of brown dwarfs down to masses below the Deuterium burning limit in nearby star forming regions. In this second paper, we…
We have carried out a brown dwarf search over an area of 14' x 23' near the central portion of the Pleiades open cluster in five optical and near infrared bands (i', Z, J, H, Ks) with 10 sigma detection limits of i' = 22.0, J = 20.0 and Ks…
Deep optical imaging is used to study time-domain properties of young brown dwarfs in sigma Orionis over typical rotational time-scales and to search for new substellar and planetary-mass cluster members. We used VIMOS at the VLT to monitor…
Characterizing multiplicity in the very low mass (VLM) domain is a topic of much current interest and fundamental importance. Here we report on a near-IR AO imaging survey of 31 young brown dwarfs and VLM stars, 28 of which are in…
We present results from a near-infrared spectroscopic study of candidate brown dwarfs and low mass stars in the young cluster NGC 2024. Using FLAMINGOS on the KPNO 2.1m and 4m telescopes, we have obtained spectra of ~70 new members of the…
This paper presents the preliminary results of a multicolour photometric study of the young open cluster Stock 14 and adjacent fields. The reddening, distance and age of the cluster were determined from colour-colour and colour-magnitude…
Age-benchmark brown dwarfs' and planetary-mass objects' spectroscopy is key to characterize substellar evolution. In this paper we present the JHK medium resolution (R~3000) spectra of 25 7-75 M_Jup (spectral types L3.0-M6.0) brown dwarfs…
We have obtained intermediate-resolution optical spectroscopy of 44 candidate very low mass members of the nearby young open cluster IC2391. Of these, 26 spectra are totally new, 14 were already analyzed in a previous paper and another four…
Determination of the lithium depletion boundary (LDB), i.e., the observational limit below which the cores of very low-mass objects do not reach high enough temperature for Li destruction, has been used to obtain ages for several open…
We present the stellar and substellar mass function of the open cluster IC2391, plus its radial dependence, and use this to put constraints on the formation mechanism of brown dwarfs. Our multiband optical and infrared photometric survey…
We report the results of a deep near infrared (JHK) survey of the outer parts of the Trapezium Cluster with Gemini South/Flamingos. 396 sources were detected in a 26 arcmin^2 area, including 138 brown dwarf candidates, defined as M<0.075…
The current status of observational studies of lithium depletion in open clusters is reviewed, concentrating mainly on G and K type stars. I attempt to answer the following questions: Can the lithium depletion patterns seen in open clusters…
We have undertaken a series of hydrodynamic + N-body simulations in order to explore the properties of young stars. Our results suggest that the IMF may be sensitive to environment in its substellar region, with more brown dwarfs being…
Star formation theories are currently divergent regarding the fundamental physical processes that dominate the substellar regime. Observations of nearby young open clusters allow the brown dwarf (BD) population to be characterised down to…
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…
We present intermediate dispersion (0.7-2.2 \AA ~pix$^{-1}$) optical spectroscopic observations aimed at applying the ``Lithium Test'' to a sample of ten brown dwarf candidates located in the general field, two in young open clusters, and…
We have used infrared images obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the Hubble Space Telescope to search for planetary-mass brown dwarfs in the star-forming cluster IC 348. In those images, we have identified 12 objects that have…
We present evidence which indicates the luminosity functions of star forming regions, open star clusters and the field dips between spectral types M7-M8. We attribute this to a sharp local drop in the luminosity-mass relation and speculate…
We present results of a search for very low mass stars and brown dwarfs towards the central region of the Hyades cluster. Using Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) near-infrared and Second Palomar Sky Survey (POSSII) optical photometry, we…