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Register a new userThe kinematics of very low mass dwarfs: splinter session summary
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Adam J. Burgasser
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Kinematic investigations are being increasingly deployed in studies of the lowest mass stars and brown dwarfs to investigate their origins, characterize their atmospheres, and examine the evolution of their physical parameters. This article summarizes the contributions made at the Kinematics of Very Low Mass Dwarfs Splinter Session. Results discussed include analysis of kinematic distributions of M, L and T dwarfs; theoretical tools for interpreting these distributions; identifications of very low mass halo dwarfs and wide companions to nearby stars; radial velocity variability among young and very cool brown dwarfs; and the search and identification of M dwarfs in young moving groups. A summary of discussion points at the conclusion of the Splinter is also presented.
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This summary reports on papers presented at the Cool Stars-16 meeting in the splinter session Solar and Stellar flares. Although many topics were discussed, the main themes were the commonality of interests, and of physics, between the solar and stellar flare communities, and the opportunities for important new observations in the near future.
Although many models have been proposed, the physical mechanisms responsible for the formation of low-mass brown dwarfs are poorly understood. The multiplicity properties and minimum mass of the brown-dwarf mass function provide critical empirical diagnostics of these mechanisms. We present the discovery via gravitational microlensing of two very low-mass, very tight binary systems. These binaries have directly and precisely measured total system masses of 0.025 Msun and 0.034 Msun, and projected separations of 0.31 AU and 0.19 AU, making them the lowest-mass and tightest field brown-dwarf binaries known. The discovery of a population of such binaries indicates that brown dwarf binaries can robustly form at least down to masses of ~0.02 Msun. Future microlensing surveys will measure a mass-selected sample of brown-dwarf binary systems, which can then be directly compared to similar samples of stellar binaries.
We report the discovery of an esdL3 subdwarf, ULAS J020858.62+020657.0, and a usdL4.5 subdwarf, ULAS J230711.01+014447.1. They were identified as L subdwarfs by optical spectra obtained with the Gran Telescopio Canarias, and followed up by optical-to-near-infrared spectroscopy with the Very Large Telescope. We also obtained an optical-to-near-infrared spectrum of a previously known L subdwarf, ULAS J135058.85+081506.8, and reclassified it as a usdL3 subdwarf. These three objects all have typical halo kinematics. They have $T_{rm eff}$ around 2050$-$2250 K, $-$1.8 $leq$ [Fe/H] $leq -$1.5, and mass around 0.0822$-$0.0833 M$_{odot}$, according to model spectral fitting and evolutionary models. These sources are likely halo transitional brown dwarfs with unsteady hydrogen fusion, as their masses are just below the hydrogen-burning minimum mass, which is $sim$ 0.0845 M$_{odot}$ at [Fe/H] = $-$1.6 and $sim$ 0.0855 M$_{odot}$ at [Fe/H] = $-$1.8. Including these, there are now nine objects in the `halo brown dwarf transition zone, which is a `substellar subdwarf gap that spans a wide temperature range within a narrow mass range of the substellar population.
The lower limit for the mass of white dwarfs (WDs) with C-O core is commonly assumed to be roughly 0.5 Msun. As a consequence, WDs of lower masses are usually identified as He-core remnants. However, when the initial mass of the progenitor star is in between 1.8 and 3 Msun, which corresponds to the so called red giant (RGB) phase transition, the mass of the H-exhausted core at the tip of the RGB is 0.3 < M_H/Msun < 0.5. Prompted by this well known result of stellar evolution theory, we investigate the possibility to form C-O WDs with mass M < 0.5 Msun. The pre-WD evolution of stars with initial mass of about 2.3 Msun, undergoing anomalous mass-loss episodes during the RGB phase and leading to the formation of WDs with He-rich or CO-rich cores have been computed. The cooling sequences of the resulting WDs are also described. We show that the minimum mass for a C-O WD is about 0.33 Msun, so that both He and C-O core WDs can exist in the mass range 0.33-0.5 Msun. The models computed for the present paper provide the theoretical tools to indentify the observational counterpart of very low mass remnants with a C-O core among those commonly ascribed to the He-core WD population in the progressively growing sample of observed WDs of low mass. Moreover, we show that the central He-burning phase of the stripped progeny of the 2.3 Msun star lasts longer and longer as the total mass decreases. In particular, the M= 0.33 Msun model takes about 800 Myr to exhausts its central helium, which is more than three time longer than the value of the standard 2.3 Msun star: it is, by far, the longest core-He burning lifetime. Finally, we find the occurrence of gravonuclear instabilities during the He-burning shell phase.
Variability is a defining characteristic of young stellar systems, and optical variability has been heavily studied to select and characterize the photospheric properties of young stars. In recent years, multi-epoch observations sampling a wider range of wavelengths and time-scales have revealed a wealth of time-variable phenomena at work during the star formation process. This splinter session was convened to summarize recent progress in providing improved coverage and understanding of time-variable processes in young stars and circumstellar disks. We begin by summarizing results from several multi-epoch Spitzer campaigns, which have demonstrated that many young stellar objects evidence significant mid-IR variability. While some of these variations can be attributed to processes in the stellar photosphere, others appear to trace short time-scale changes in the circumstellar disk which can be successfully modeled with axisymmetric or non-axisymmetric structures. We also review recent studies probing variability at shorter wavelengths that provide evidence for high frequency pulsations associated with accretion outbursts, correlated optical/X-ray variability in Classical T Tauri stars, and magnetic reversals in young solar analogs.
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