Search results for "brown dwarf"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
Accretion-ejection connection in the young brown dwarf candidate ISO-ChaI 217*
2014
As the number of observed brown dwarf outflows is growing it is important to investigate how these outflows compare to the well-studied jets from young stellar objects. A key point of comparison is the relationship between outflow and accretion activity and in particular the ratio between the mass outflow and accretion rates (Ṁout/Ṁacc). The brown dwarf candidate ISO-ChaI 217 was discovered by our group, as part of a spectro-astrometric study of brown dwarfs, to be driving an asymmetric outflow with the blue-shifted lobe having a position angle of ~20°. The aim here is to further investigate the properties of ISO-ChaI 217, the morphology and kinematics of its outflow, and to better constrai…
Towards simulation of high temperature methane spectra
2002
Methane plays a central role in gas layers of temperatures up to around 3000 K in a number of astrophysical objects ranging from giant planets to brown dwarfs, over proto-solar nebulae, to several classes of cool stars. In order to model and analyse these objects correctly, an accurate and complete list of spectral lines at high temperature is demanded. Predicting high temperature spectra implies, however, predicting hot bands and thus modelling highly excited vibrational states. This is a real challenge in the case of methane. We report the preliminary results of a theoretical study combining the global effective Hamiltonian approach and its computational implementation (STDS package: http…
Evidence of a substellar companion to AB Dor C
2019
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 determined masses and precise photometry can effectively evaluate the predictions of stellar models. AB Dor C (0.090 solar masses) has become a prime benchmark for calibration of theoretical evolutionary models of low-mass young stars. One of the ambiguities remaining in AB Dor C is the possible binary nature of this star. We observed AB Dor C with the VLTI/AMBER instrument in low-resolution mode at the J, H and K bands. The interferometric observables at the K-…
The enigmatic young brown dwarf binary FU Tau: accretion and activity
2010
FU Tau belongs to a rare class of young, wide brown dwarf binaries. We have resolved the system in a Chandra X-ray observation and detected only the primary, FU Tau A. Hard X-ray emission, presumably from a corona, is present but, unexpectedly, we detect also a strong and unusually soft component from FU Tau A. Its X-ray properties, so far unique among brown dwarfs, are very similar to those of the T Tauri star TW Hya. The analogy with TW Hya suggests that the dominating soft X-ray component can be explained by emission from accretion shocks. However, the typical free-fall velocities of a brown dwarf are too low for an interpretation of the observed X-ray temperature as post-shock region. O…
Minimum main sequence mass in quadratic Palatini f(R) gravity
2019
General relativity yields an analytical prediction of a minimum required mass of roughly $\ensuremath{\sim}0.08--0.09\text{ }\text{ }{M}_{\ensuremath{\bigodot}}$ for a star to stably burn sufficient hydrogen to fully compensate photospheric losses and, therefore, to belong to the main sequence. Those objects below this threshold (brown dwarfs) eventually cool down without any chance to stabilize their internal temperature. In this work we consider quadratic Palatini $f(\mathcal{R})$ gravity and show that the corresponding Newtonian hydrostatic equilibrium equation contains a new term whose effect is to introduce a weakening/strengthening of the gravitational interaction inside astrophysical…
AB Doradus C: age, spectral type, orbit, and comparison to evolutionary models
2005
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…
A dynamical calibration of the mass–luminosity relation at very low stellar masses and young ages
2004
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…
ChandraX‐Ray Observation of the Orion Nebula Cluster. I. Detection, Identification, and Determination of X‐Ray Luminosities
2002
In this first of two companion papers on the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), we present our analysis of a 63 Ksec Chandra HRC-I observation that yielded 742 X-ray detections within the 30'x30' field of view. To facilitate our interpretation of the X-ray image, here we collect a multi-wavelength catalog of nearly 2900 known objects in the region by combining 17 different catalogs from the recent literature. We define two reference groups: an infrared sample, containing all objects detected in the K band, and an optical sample comprising low extinction, well characterized ONC members. We show for both samples that field object contamination is generally low. Our X-ray sources are primarily low ma…
Modeling the long duration rise phase of a flare detected on the M star TWA 11 B
2009
We present preliminary results from the analysis of a long duration flare that was observed in a serendipitous XMM-Newton detection of the M star CD-39 7717 B (TWA 11 B), member of the young stellar association TW Hya. Only the rise phase (with a duration of ~35 ks) and possibly the flare peak are present in the light-curve. The decay phase was not monitored. The fluorescent iron emission line at 6.4 keV was observed during this event. As far as we are concerned, since TWA 11 B seems to have no disk, this is only the third detection of Fe photospheric fluorescence. During the flare, the X-ray flux increased a factor of ~4. Taking the light curve and the evolution of the hardness ratio into …
X-ray detection of the substellar twin 2MASS J11011926-7732383 AB
2007
2MASS J11011926-7732383 AB (hereafter 2M1101AB), located in the Cha I star forming region, is a rare wide-separation brown dwarf binary. XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of 2M1101AB have allowed us to examine the influence of physical parameters (mass, bolometric luminosity and effective temperature) on X-ray emission from a coeval pair of substellar objects. The spatial resolution of XMM-Newton is not sufficient to separate contributions from the two components in the binary. The X-ray source detected with XMM-Newton has a column density compatible with the infrared extinction of component A. On the other hand, the binary is resolved with Chandra, and the bulk of the X-ray emission is c…