A new brown dwarf desert? A scarcity of wide ultracool binaries

Peter R. Allen; David W. Koerner; Michael W. McElwain; Kelle L. Cruz; I. Neill Reid

doi:10.1086/510346

A new brown dwarf desert? A scarcity of wide ultracool binaries

Peter R. Allen, David W. Koerner, Michael W. McElwain, Kelle L. Cruz, I. Neill Reid

Astronomy and Planetary Sciences

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34 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present the results of a deep-imaging search for wide companions to low-mass stars and brown dwarfs using NSFCam on the Infrared Telescope Facility. We searched a sample of 132 M7-L8 dwarfs to magnitude limits of J ∼ 20.5 and K ∼ 18.5, corresponding to secondary-to-primary mass ratios of ∼0.5. No companions were found with separations between 2″ and 31″ (∼40 to ∼1000 AU). This null result implies a wide companion frequency below 2.3% at the 95% confidence level within the sensitivity limits of the survey. Preliminary modeling efforts indicate that we could have detected 85% of companions more massive than 0.05 M_⊙ and 50% above 0.03 M _⊙.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	971-978
Number of pages	8
Journal	Astronomical Journal
Volume	133
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1086/510346
State	Published - Mar 2007

Keywords

Binaries: general
Stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

Access to Document

10.1086/510346

Cite this

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title = "A new brown dwarf desert? A scarcity of wide ultracool binaries",

abstract = "We present the results of a deep-imaging search for wide companions to low-mass stars and brown dwarfs using NSFCam on the Infrared Telescope Facility. We searched a sample of 132 M7-L8 dwarfs to magnitude limits of J ∼ 20.5 and K ∼ 18.5, corresponding to secondary-to-primary mass ratios of ∼0.5. No companions were found with separations between 2″ and 31″ (∼40 to ∼1000 AU). This null result implies a wide companion frequency below 2.3% at the 95% confidence level within the sensitivity limits of the survey. Preliminary modeling efforts indicate that we could have detected 85% of companions more massive than 0.05 M⊙ and 50% above 0.03 M ⊙.",

keywords = "Binaries: general, Stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs",

author = "Allen, {Peter R.} and Koerner, {David W.} and McElwain, {Michael W.} and Cruz, {Kelle L.} and Reid, {I. Neill}",

year = "2007",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1086/510346",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "133",

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journal = "Astronomical Journal",

issn = "0004-6256",

publisher = "American Astronomical Society",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - A new brown dwarf desert? A scarcity of wide ultracool binaries

AU - Allen, Peter R.

AU - Koerner, David W.

AU - McElwain, Michael W.

AU - Cruz, Kelle L.

AU - Reid, I. Neill

PY - 2007/3

Y1 - 2007/3

N2 - We present the results of a deep-imaging search for wide companions to low-mass stars and brown dwarfs using NSFCam on the Infrared Telescope Facility. We searched a sample of 132 M7-L8 dwarfs to magnitude limits of J ∼ 20.5 and K ∼ 18.5, corresponding to secondary-to-primary mass ratios of ∼0.5. No companions were found with separations between 2″ and 31″ (∼40 to ∼1000 AU). This null result implies a wide companion frequency below 2.3% at the 95% confidence level within the sensitivity limits of the survey. Preliminary modeling efforts indicate that we could have detected 85% of companions more massive than 0.05 M⊙ and 50% above 0.03 M ⊙.

AB - We present the results of a deep-imaging search for wide companions to low-mass stars and brown dwarfs using NSFCam on the Infrared Telescope Facility. We searched a sample of 132 M7-L8 dwarfs to magnitude limits of J ∼ 20.5 and K ∼ 18.5, corresponding to secondary-to-primary mass ratios of ∼0.5. No companions were found with separations between 2″ and 31″ (∼40 to ∼1000 AU). This null result implies a wide companion frequency below 2.3% at the 95% confidence level within the sensitivity limits of the survey. Preliminary modeling efforts indicate that we could have detected 85% of companions more massive than 0.05 M⊙ and 50% above 0.03 M ⊙.

KW - Binaries: general

KW - Stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs

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A new brown dwarf desert? A scarcity of wide ultracool binaries

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Wide companions of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs

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A new brown dwarf desert? A scarcity of wide ultracool binaries

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Wide companions of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs

Cite this