Investigating Low-mass Binary Stars and Brown Dwarfs with Near-infrared Spectroscopy

Investigating Low-mass Binary Stars and Brown Dwarfs with Near-infrared Spectroscopy PDF Author: Gregory Nathan Mace
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Get Book Here

Book Description
The mass of a star at formation determines its subsequent evolution and demise. Low-mass stars are the most common products of star formation and their long main-sequence lifetimes cause them to accumulate over time. Star formation also produces many substellar-mass objects known as brown dwarfs, which emerge from their natal molecular clouds and continually cool as they age, pervading the Milky Way. Low-mass stars and brown dwarfs exhibit a wide range of physical characteristics and their abundance make them ideal subjects for testing formation and evolution models. I have examined a pair of pre-main sequence spectroscopic binaries and used radial velocity variations to determine orbital solutions and mass ratios. Additionally, I have employed synthetic spectra to estimate their effective temperatures and place them on theoretical Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams. From this analysis I discuss the formation and evolution of young binary systems and place bounds on absolute masses and radii. I have also studied the late-type T dwarfs revealed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). This includes the exemplar T8 subdwarf Wolf 1130C, which has the lowest inferred metallicity in the literature and spectroscopic traits consistent with old age. Comparison to synthetic spectra implies that the dispersion in near-infrared colors of late-type T dwarfs is a result of age and/or thin sulfide clouds. With the updated census of the L, T, and Y dwarfs we can now study specific brown dwarf subpopulations. Finally, I present a number of future studies that would develop our understanding of the physical qualities of T dwarf color outliers and disentangle the tracers of age and atmospheric properties.

Investigating Low-mass Binary Stars and Brown Dwarfs with Near-infrared Spectroscopy

Investigating Low-mass Binary Stars and Brown Dwarfs with Near-infrared Spectroscopy PDF Author: Gregory Nathan Mace
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Get Book Here

Book Description
The mass of a star at formation determines its subsequent evolution and demise. Low-mass stars are the most common products of star formation and their long main-sequence lifetimes cause them to accumulate over time. Star formation also produces many substellar-mass objects known as brown dwarfs, which emerge from their natal molecular clouds and continually cool as they age, pervading the Milky Way. Low-mass stars and brown dwarfs exhibit a wide range of physical characteristics and their abundance make them ideal subjects for testing formation and evolution models. I have examined a pair of pre-main sequence spectroscopic binaries and used radial velocity variations to determine orbital solutions and mass ratios. Additionally, I have employed synthetic spectra to estimate their effective temperatures and place them on theoretical Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams. From this analysis I discuss the formation and evolution of young binary systems and place bounds on absolute masses and radii. I have also studied the late-type T dwarfs revealed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). This includes the exemplar T8 subdwarf Wolf 1130C, which has the lowest inferred metallicity in the literature and spectroscopic traits consistent with old age. Comparison to synthetic spectra implies that the dispersion in near-infrared colors of late-type T dwarfs is a result of age and/or thin sulfide clouds. With the updated census of the L, T, and Y dwarfs we can now study specific brown dwarf subpopulations. Finally, I present a number of future studies that would develop our understanding of the physical qualities of T dwarf color outliers and disentangle the tracers of age and atmospheric properties.

New Light on Dark Stars

New Light on Dark Stars PDF Author: Neill I. Reid
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1447136632
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 492

Get Book Here

Book Description
Perhaps the most common question that a child asks when he or she sees the night sky from a dark site for the first time is: 'How many stars are there?' This happens to be a question which has exercised the intellectual skills of many astronomers over the course of most of the last century, including, for the last two decades, one of the authors of this text. Until recently, the most accurate answer was 'We are not certain, but there is a good chance that almost all of them are M dwarfs. ' Within the last three years, results from new sky-surveys - particularly the first deep surveys at near infrared wavelengths - have provided a breakthrough in this subject, solidifying our census of the lowest-mass stars and identifying large numbers of the hitherto almost mythical substellar-mass brown dwarfs. These extremely low-luminosity objects are the central subjects of this book, and the subtitle should be interpreted accordingly. The expression 'low-mass stars' carries a wide range of meanings in the astronomical literature, but is most frequently taken to refer to objects with masses comparable with that of the Sun - F and G dwarfs, and their red giant descendants. While this definition is eminently reasonable for the average extragalactic astronomer, our discussion centres on M dwarfs, with masses of no more than 60% that of the Sun, and extends to 'failed stars' - objects with insufficient mass to ignite central hydrogen fusion.

Near-infrared Spectroscopy of Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs

Near-infrared Spectroscopy of Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs PDF Author: John Christian Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book Here

Book Description


Very Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs

Very Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs PDF Author: Rafael Rebolo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521663359
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume provides a state-of-the-art review of our current knowledge of brown dwarfs and very low-mass stars. The hunt for and study of these elusive objects is currently one of the most dynamic areas of research in astronomy for two reasons. Brown dwarfs bridge the gap between stars and planets, and they may constitute an important part of the 'dark matter' of the Universe. This volume presents review articles from a team of international authorities who gathered at a conference in La Palma to assess the spectacular progress that has been made in this field in the last few years.

Discovery of Very-Low-Mass Binary Stars and Circumstellar Disks in the Infrared

Discovery of Very-Low-Mass Binary Stars and Circumstellar Disks in the Infrared PDF Author: Nick Siegler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 440

Get Book Here

Book Description
We present results from three infrared observational studies investigating different aspects of stellar evolution. The first survey, conducted in the near-infrared with adaptive optics, measures for the first time the stellar multiplicity properties of field M6-M7.5 dwarf stars. We report that their binary fraction, separation distribution, and mass ratio distribution are very similar to those of later spectral type stars and brown dwarfs while distinct from more massive stellar binaries. These differences, when coupled with age, shed light on possibly different formation mechanisms and kinematic evolution between binary systems of different primary masses. I incorporate these results with those from all known very-low mass binary systems and present their statistical properties. We also present the discovery of a very tight (66 mas) brown dwarf companion to a mid-L dwarf demonstrating the capabilities of laser guide star adaptive optics. In the second study we present mid-infrared Spitzer observations of members of the ~ 50 Myr open stellar cluster IC 2391 where, using photometric techniques, we report that about a third of the solar-like stars (spectral types FGK) likely possess debris disks. With respect to several other stellar groups of known age, we show for the first time the evolution of the debris disk fraction of solar-like stars. We conclude that, along with more massive late-B and A stars, the formation of planetesimals around solar-like stars appears to be a universal process of star formation. Lastly, we present preliminary near- and mid-infrared Spitzer observations of stars in the direction of the ~ 6 Myr open cluster IC 2395. Using photometric techniques, we identify upper main sequence cluster members and lower-mass candidate members with evidence of circumstellar disks at different stages of disk evolution - primordial, transition, and debris. We present for the first time the evolution of the median IRAC flux ratios emitted from the inner 0.2 AU regions of classic T Tauri stars. These results are possibly consistent with the processes of grain growth and dust settling as a mechanism for planetesimal formation.

A Search for Pulsation in Young Brown Dwarfs and Very Low Mass Stars

A Search for Pulsation in Young Brown Dwarfs and Very Low Mass Stars PDF Author: Ann Marie Cody
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1612334210
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 2005, Palla & Baraffe proposed that brown dwarfs and very low mass stars (

Characterizing Low-mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs and Upgrading NIRSPEC

Characterizing Low-mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs and Upgrading NIRSPEC PDF Author: Emily Martin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 197

Get Book Here

Book Description
This dissertation combines near-infrared spectroscopic and astrometric analysis of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs with instrumentation work to upgrade the NIRSPEC spectrometer for the Keck II Telescope. The scientific goals of my thesis are to discover and characterize the physical properties of brown dwarfs, the lowest-mass (

New Light on Dark Stars

New Light on Dark Stars PDF Author: I. Neill Reid
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781447136651
Category : Astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 470

Get Book Here

Book Description
Perhaps the most common question that a child asks when he or she sees the night sky from a dark site for the first time is: 'How many stars are there?' This happens to be a question which has exercised the intellectual skills of many astronomers over the course of most of the last century, including, for the last two decades, one of the authors of this text. Until recently, the most accurate answer was 'We are not certain, but there is a good chance that almost all of them are M dwarfs. ' Within the last three years, results from new sky-surveys - particularly the first deep surveys at near infrared wavelengths - have provided a breakthrough in this subject, solidifying our census of the lowest-mass stars and identifying large numbers of the hitherto almost mythical substellar-mass brown dwarfs. These extremely low-luminosity objects are the central subjects of this book, and the subtitle should be interpreted accordingly. The expression 'low-mass stars' carries a wide range of meanings in the astronomical literature, but is most frequently taken to refer to objects with masses comparable with that of the Sun - F and G dwarfs, and their red giant descendants. While this definition is eminently reasonable for the average extragalactic astronomer, our discussion centres on M dwarfs, with masses of no more than 60% that of the Sun, and extends to 'failed stars' - objects with insufficient mass to ignite central hydrogen fusion.

50 Years of Brown Dwarfs

50 Years of Brown Dwarfs PDF Author: Viki Joergens
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3319011626
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Get Book Here

Book Description
The years 2012/2013 mark the 50th anniversary of the theoretical prediction that Brown Dwarfs, i.e. degenerate objects which are just not massive enough to sustain stable hydrogen fusion, exist. Some 20 years after their discovery, how Brown Dwarfs form is still one of the main open questions in the theory of star formation. In this volume, the pioneers of Brown Dwarf research review the history of the theoretical prediction and the subsequent discovery of Brown Dwarfs. After an introduction, written by Viki Joergens, reviewing Shiv Kumar's theoretical prediction of the existence of brown dwarfs, Takenori Nakano reviews his and Hayashi's calculation of the Hydrogen Burning Minimum Mass. Both predictions happened in the early 1960s. Jill Tarter then writes on the introduction of the term 'Brown Dwarf', before Ben Oppenheimer, Rafael Rebolo and Gibor Basri describe their first discovery of Brown Dwarfs in the 1990s. Lastly, Michael Cushing and Isabelle Baraffe describe the development of the field to the current state of the art. While the book is mainly aimed at the Brown Dwarf research community, the description of the pioneering period in a scientific field will attract general readers interested in astronomy as well.

Brown Dwarf Companions to Young Solar an

Brown Dwarf Companions to Young Solar an PDF Author: Stanimir Metchev
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 158112290X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Get Book Here

Book Description
We present results from an adaptive optics survey conducted with the Palomar and Keck telescopes over 3 years, which measured the frequency of stellar and sub-stellar companions to Sun-like stars. The survey sample contains 266 stars in the 3-10000 million year age range at heliocentric distances between 8 and 200 parsecs and with spectral types between F5-K5. A sub-sample of 101 stars, between 3-500 million years old, were observed in deep exposures with a coronagraph to search for faint sub-stellar companions. A total of 288 candidate companions were discovered around the sample stars, which were re-imaged at subsequent epochs to determine physical association with the candidate host stars by checking for common proper motion. Benefitting from a highly accurate astrometric calibration of the observations, we were able to successfully apply the common proper motion test in the majority of the cases, including stars with proper motions as small as 20 milli-arcseconds/year. The results from the survey include the discovery of three new brown dwarf companions (HD 49197B, HD 203030B, and ScoPMS 214B), 43 new stellar binaries, and a triple system. The physical association of an additional, a priori-suspected, candidate sub-stellar companion to the star HII 1348 is astrometrically confirmed. The newly-discovered and confirmed young brown dwarf companions span a range of spectral types between M5 and T0.5, and will be of prime significance for constraining evolutionary models of young brown dwarfs and extra-solar planets. Based on the 3 new detections of sub-stellar companions in the 101 star sub-sample and following a careful estimate of the survey incompleteness, a Bayesian statistical analysis shows that the frequency of 0.012-0.072 solar-mass brown dwarfs in 30-1600 AU orbits around young solar analogs is 6.8% (-4.9%, +8.3%; 2-sigma limits). While this is a factor of 3 lower than the frequency of stellar companions to G-dwarfs in the same orbital range, it is significantly higher than the frequency of brown dwarfs in 0-3 AU orbits discovered through precision radial velocity surveys. It is also fully consistent with the observed frequency of 0-3 AU extra-solar planets. Thus, the result demonstrates that the radial-velocity "brown dwarf desert" does not extend to wide separations, contrary to previous belief.