No Arabic abstract
The protostellar outflow mechanism operates for a significant fraction of the pre-main sequence phase of a solar mass star and is thought to have a key role in star and perhaps even planet formation. This energetic mechanism manifests itself in several different forms and on many scales. Thus outflow activity can be probed in numerous different regimes from radio to X-ray wavelengths. Recent discoveries have shown that it is not only solar mass stars that launch outflows during their formation but also the sub-stellar brown dwarfs. In this article what is currently known about jets from young stars is summarised, including an outline of why it is important to study jets. The second part of this article is dedicated to jets from young brown dwarfs. While only a small number of brown dwarf outflows have been investigated to date, interesting properties have been observed. Here observations of brown dwarf outflows are described and what is currently known of their properties compared to low mass protostellar outflows.
Jets are ubiquitous in the Universe and, as demonstrated in this volume, are seen from a large number of astrophysical objects. For a number of reasons, in particular their proximity and the abundant range of diagnostics to determine their characteristics, jets from young stars and their associated outflows may offer us the best opportunity to discover how jets are generated in general and the nature of the link between outflows and their accretion disks. Recently it has become clear that jets may be fundamental to the star formation process in removing angular momentum from the surrounding protoplanetary disk thereby allowing accretion to proceed. Moreover, with the realisation that planetary formation begins much earlier than previously thought, jets may also help forge planets by determining initial environmental characteristics. This seems to be particularly true within the so-called terrestrial planet forming zone. Here we review observations of jets from young stars which have greatly benefitted from new facilities such as ALMA, space observatories like Spitzer, Herschel and HST, and radio facilities like LOFAR and the VLA. Interferometers such as CHARA and GRAVITY are starting to make inroads into resolving how they are launched, and we can look forward to a bright future in our understanding of this phenomenon when JWST and the SKA come on stream. In addition, we examine the various magnetohydrodynamic models for how jets from young stars are thought to be generated and how observations may help us select between these various options.
We present new 890 $mu m$ continuum ALMA observations of 5 brown dwarfs (BDs) with infrared excess in Lupus I and III -- which, in combination with 4 BDs previously observed, allowed us to study the mm properties of the full known BD disk population of one star-forming region. Emission is detected in 5 out of the 9 BD disks. Dust disk mass, brightness profiles and characteristic sizes of the BD population are inferred from continuum flux and modeling of the observations. Only one source is marginally resolved, allowing for the determination of its disk characteristic size. We conduct a demographic comparison between the properties of disks around BDs and stars in Lupus. Due to the small sample size, we cannot confirm or disprove if the disk mass over stellar mass ratio drops for BDs, as suggested for Ophiuchus. Nevertheless, we find that all detected BD disks have an estimated dust mass between 0.2 and 3.2 $M_{bigoplus}$; these results suggest that the measured solid masses in BD disks can not explain the observed exoplanet population, analogous to earlier findings on disks around more massive stars. Combined with the low estimated accretion rates, and assuming that the mm-continuum emission is a reliable proxy for the total disk mass, we derive ratios of $dot{M}_{mathrm{acc}} / M_{mathrm{disk}}$ significantly lower than in disks around more massive stars. If confirmed with more accurate measurements of disk gas masses, this result could imply a qualitatively different relationship between disk masses and inward gas transport in BD disks.
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.
In order to understand the atmospheres as well as the formation mechanism of giant planets formed outside our solar system, the next decade will require an investment in studies of isolated young brown dwarfs. In this white paper we summarize the opportunity for discovery space in the coming decade of isolated brown dwarfs with planetary masses in young stellar associations within 150 pc. We suggest that next generation telescopes and beyond need to invest in characterizing young brown dwarfs in order to fully understand the atmospheres of sibling directly imaged exoplanets as well as the tail end of the star formation process.
We discuss accretion and outflow properties of three very low-mass young stellar objects based on broad-band mid-resolution X-Shooter/VLT spectra. Our targets (FU TauA, 2M 1207-39, and Par-Lup3-4) have spectral types between M5 and M8, ages between 1 Myr and ~10 Myr, and are known to be accreting from previous studies. The final objective of our project is the determination of mass outflow to accretion rate for objects near or within the substellar regime as a probe for the T Tauri phase of brown dwarfs and the investigation of variability in the accretion and outflow processes.