A dynamical calibration of the mass–luminosity relation at very low stellar masses and young ages

Mass is the most fundamental parameter of a star, yet it is also one of the most difficult to measure directly. In general, astronomers estimate stellar masses by determining the luminosity and using the 'mass-luminosity' relationship, but this relationship has never been accurately calibrated for young, low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. Masses for these low-mass objects are therefore constrained only by theoretical models. A new high-contrast adaptive optics camera enabled the discovery of a young (50 million years) companion only 0.156 arcseconds (2.3 au) from the more luminous (> 120 times brighter) star AB Doradus A. Here we report a dynamical determination of the mass of the newly resol…

On the dynamics of the AB Doradus system

We present an astrometric analysis of the binary systems ABDorA /ABDorC and ABDorBa / ABDorBb. These two systems of well-known late-type stars are gravitationally associated and they constitute the quadruple ABDoradus system. From the astrometric data available at different wavelengths, we report: (i) a determination of the orbit of ABDorC, the very low mass companion to ABDorA, which confirms the mass estimate of 0.090Msun reported in previous works; (ii) a measurement of the parallax of ABDorBa, which unambiguously confirms the long-suspected physical association between this star and ABDorA; and (iii) evidence of orbital motion of ABDorBa around ABDorA, which places an upper bound of 0.4…

The AB Doradus System Revisited: The Dynamical Mass of AB Dor A

International audience; We report new radio interferometric observations of the quadruple pre-main-sequence (PMS) system ABD oradus. From these observations, combined with existing VLT near-infrared relative astrometry, we have refined the estimates of the dynamical masses of the system. In particular, we find component masses of 0.86 ± 0.09M&sun; and 0.090 ± 0.003M&sun; for ABD or A and ABD or C, respectively. These dynamical masses, coupled with temperatures and luminosities, allow for comparison with theoretical stellar models. The case of ABDorC, in terms of calibration of evolutionary models of low-mass young stars has been widely reported in previous studies. In this contribution, we …

The size of AB Doradus A from VLTI/AMBER interferometry

The pre-main sequence (PMS) star ABDorA is the main component of the quadruple system ABDoradus. The precise determination of the mass and photometry of the close companion to ABDorA, ABDorC, has provided an important benchmark for calibration of theoretical evolutionary models of low-mass stars. The limiting factor to the precision of this calibration is the age of the system, as both the mass and luminosity of ABDorA and C are well monitored by other ongoing programs. In this paper we present VLTI/AMBER observations of ABDorA which provide a direct measurement of the size of this star, 0.96+/-0.06 Rsun. The latter estimate, combined with other fundamental parameters also measured for this…

On the Age, Spectral Type, Orbit, and Comparison to Evolutionary Models of AB Dor C

AB Doradus C: age, spectral type, orbit, and comparison to evolutionary models

We expand upon the results of Close et al. 2005 regarding the young, low-mass object AB Dor C and its role as a calibration point for theoretical tracks. We present an improved spectral reduction and a new orbital solution with two additional epochs. Our improved analysis confirms our spectral type of M8 (+/- 1) and mass of 0.090+/-0.003 solar masses for AB Dor C. Comparing the results for AB Dor C with other young, low-mass objects with dynamical masses we find a general trend where current evolutionary models tend to over-predict the temperature (or under-predict the mass) for low mass stars and brown dwarfs. Given our precision, there is a ~99% chance that the mass of AB Dor C is underes…