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1.
We investigate the dependence of stellar properties on the mean thermal Jeans mass in molecular clouds. We compare the results from the two largest hydrodynamical simulations of star formation to resolve the fragmentation process down to the opacity limit, the first of which was reported by Bate, Bonnell & Bromm. The initial conditions of the two calculations are identical except for the radii of the clouds, which are chosen so that the mean densities and mean thermal Jeans masses of the clouds differ by factors of 9 and 3, respectively.
We find that the denser cloud, with the lower mean thermal Jeans mass, produces a higher proportion of brown dwarfs and has a lower characteristic (median) mass of the stars and brown dwarfs. This dependence of the initial mass function (IMF) on the density of the cloud may explain the observation that the Taurus star-forming region appears to be deficient in brown dwarfs when compared with the Orion Trapezium cluster. The new calculation also produces wide binaries (separations >20 au), one of which is a wide binary brown dwarf system.
Based on the hydrodynamical calculations, we develop a simple accretion/ejection model for the origin of the IMF. In the model, all stars and brown dwarfs begin with the same mass (set by the opacity limit for fragmentation) and grow in mass until their accretion is terminated stochastically by their ejection from the cloud through dynamically interactions. The model predicts that the main variation of the IMF in different star-forming environments should be in the location of the peak (due to variations in the mean thermal Jeans mass of the cloud) and in the substellar regime. However, the slope of the IMF at high masses may depend on the dispersion in the accretion rates of protostars.  相似文献   

2.
The masses and temperatures of young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in star-forming regions are not yet well established because of uncertainties in the age of individual objects and the spectral type–temperature scale appropriate for objects with ages of only a few Myr. Using multi-object optical spectroscopy, 45 low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the Trapezium Cluster in Orion have been classified and 44 of these confirmed as bona fide cluster members. The spectral types obtained have been converted to effective temperatures using a temperature scale intermediate between those of dwarfs and giants, which is suitable for young pre-main-sequence objects. The objects have been placed on a Hertzsprung–Russell (HR) diagram overlaid with theoretical isochrones. The low-mass stars and the higher mass substellar objects are found to be clustered around the 1 Myr isochrone, while many of the lower mass substellar objects are located well above this isochrone. An average age of 1 Myr is found for the majority of the objects. Assuming coevality of the sources and an average age of 1 Myr, the masses of the objects have been estimated and range from  0.018 to 0.44 M⊙  . The spectra also allow an investigation of the surface gravity of the objects by measurement of the sodium doublet equivalent width. With one possible exception, all objects have low gravities, in line with young ages, and the Na indices for the Trapezium objects lie systematically below those of young stars and brown dwarfs in Chamaeleon, suggesting that the 820 nm Na index may provide a sensitive means of estimating ages in young clusters.  相似文献   

3.
Recent observations point to the presence of structured dust grains in the discs surrounding young brown dwarfs, thus implying that the first stages of planet formation take place also in the substellar regime. Here, we investigate the potential for planet formation around brown dwarfs and very low-mass stars according to the sequential core accretion model of planet formation. We find that, for a brown dwarf mass 0.05 M⊙, our models predict a maximum planetary mass of  ∼5   M⊕  , orbiting with semimajor axis ∼ 1 au. However, we note that the predictions for the mass–semimajor axis distribution are strongly dependent upon the models chosen for the disc surface density profiles and the assumed distribution of disc masses. In particular, if brown dwarf disc masses are of the order of a few Jupiter masses, Earth-mass planets might be relatively frequent, while if typical disc masses are only a fraction of Jupiter mass, we predict that planet formation would be extremely rare in the substellar regime. As the observational constraints on disc profiles, mass dependencies and their distributions are poor in the brown dwarf regime, we advise caution in validating theoretical models only on stars similar to the Sun and emphasize the need for observational data on planetary systems around a wide range of stellar masses. We also find that, unlike the situation around solar-like stars, Type II migration is totally absent from the planet formation process around brown dwarfs, suggesting that any future observations of planets around brown dwarfs would provide a direct measure of the role of other types of migration.  相似文献   

4.
Self-gravitating protostellar discs are unstable to fragmentation if the gas can cool on a time-scale that is short compared with the orbital period. We use a combination of hydrodynamic simulations and N -body orbit integrations to study the long-term evolution of a fragmenting disc with an initial mass ratio to the star of   M disc/ M *= 0.1  . For a disc that is initially unstable across a range of radii, a combination of collapse and subsequent accretion yields substellar objects with a spectrum of masses extending (for a Solar-mass star) up to  ≈0.01 M⊙  . Subsequent gravitational evolution ejects most of the lower mass objects within a few million years, leaving a small number of very massive planets or brown dwarfs in eccentric orbits at moderately small radii. Based on these results, systems such as HD 168443 – in which the companions are close to or beyond the deuterium burning limit – appear to be the best candidates to have formed via gravitational instability. If massive substellar companions originate from disc fragmentation, while lower-mass planetary companions originate from core accretion, the metallicity distribution of stars which host massive substellar companions at radii of ∼1 au should differ from that of stars with lower mass planetary companions.  相似文献   

5.
The aim of the Degenerate Objects around Degenerate Objects (DODO) survey is to search for very low-mass brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets in wide orbits around white dwarfs via direct imaging. The direct detection of such companions would allow the spectroscopic investigation of objects with temperatures much lower  (<500 K)  than the coolest brown dwarfs currently observed. These ultra-low-mass substellar objects would have spectral types >T8.5, and so could belong to the proposed Y dwarf spectral sequence. The detection of a planet around a white dwarf would prove that such objects can survive the final stages of stellar evolution and place constraints on the frequency of planetary systems around their progenitors (with masses between 1.5 and 8   M⊙  , i.e. early B to mid-F). This paper presents the results of a multi epoch J band common proper motion survey of 23 nearby equatorial and Northern hemisphere white dwarfs. We rule out the presence of any common proper motion companions, with limiting masses determined from the completeness limit of each observation, to 18 white dwarfs. For the remaining five targets, the motion of the white dwarf is not sufficiently separated from the non-moving background objects in each field. These targets require additional observations to conclusively rule out the presence of any common proper motion companions. From our completeness limits, we tentatively suggest that  ≲5 per cent  of white dwarfs have substellar companions with   T eff≳ 500 K  between projected physical separations of 60–200 au.  相似文献   

6.
We investigate the formation of binary stellar systems. We consider a model where a 'seed' protobinary system forms, via fragmentation, within a collapsing molecular cloud core and evolves to its final mass by accreting material from an infalling gaseous envelope. This accretion alters the mass ratio and orbit of the binary, and is largely responsible for forming the circumstellar and/or circumbinary discs.
Given this model for binary formation, we predict the properties of binary systems and how they depend on the initial conditions within the molecular cloud core. We predict that there should be a continuous trend such that closer binaries are more likely to have equal-mass components and are more likely to have circumbinary discs than wider systems. Comparing our results with observations, we find that the observed mass-ratio distributions of binaries and the frequency of circumbinary discs as a function of separation are most easily reproduced if the progenitor molecular cloud cores have radial density profiles between uniform and 1/ r (e.g., Gaussian) with near-uniform rotation. This is in good agreement with the observed properties of pre-stellar cores. Conversely, we find that the observed properties of binaries cannot be reproduced if the cloud cores are in solid-body rotation and have initial density profiles which are strongly centrally condensed. Finally, in agreement with the radial-velocity searches for extrasolar planets, we find that it is very difficult to form a brown dwarf companion to a solar-type star with a separation ≲10 au, but that the frequency of brown dwarf companions should increase with larger separations or lower mass primaries.  相似文献   

7.
This paper summarizes the results of over 17 years of work searching for low mass stellar and substellar companions to more than 370 nearby white dwarfs. Roughly 60 low mass, unevolved companions were found and studied all together, with over 20 discovered in the last few years, including the first unambiguous brown dwarf companion to a white dwarf, GD 1400B. The resulting spectral type distributions for companions to white dwarfs and nearby cool field dwarfs are compared, and the implications for binary star formation are discussed. A brief analysis of GD 1400B, including new data, is also presented. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献   

8.
We analyse the angular momentum evolution from the red giant branch (RGB) to the horizontal branch (HB) and along the HB. Using rotation velocities for stars in the globular cluster M13, we find that the required angular momentum for the fast rotators is up to 1–3 orders of magnitude (depending on some assumptions) larger than that of the Sun. Planets of masses up to 5 times Jupiter's mass and up to an initial orbital separation of ~2 au are sufficient to spin-up the RGB progenitors of most of these fast rotators. Other stars have been spun-up by brown dwarfs or low-mass main-sequence stars. Our results show that the fast rotating HB stars have been probably spun-up by planets, brown dwarfs or low-mass main-sequence stars while they evolved on the RGB. We argue that the angular momentum considerations presented in this paper further support the 'planet second parameter' model. In this model, the 'second parameter' process, which determines the distribution of stars on the HB, is interaction with low-mass companions, in most cases with gas-giant planets, and in a minority of cases with brown dwarfs or low-mass main-sequence stars. The masses and initial orbital separations of the planets (or brown dwarfs or low-mass main-sequence stars) form a rich spectrum of different physical parameters, which manifests itself in the rich varieties of HB morphologies observed in the different globular clusters.  相似文献   

9.
We have carried out a search for co‐moving stellar and substellar companions around 18 exoplanet host stars with the infrared camera MAGIC at the 2.2 m Calar Alto telescope, by comparing our images with images from the all sky surveys 2MASS, POSS I and II. Four stars of the sample namely HD80606, 55 Cnc, HD46375 and BD–10°3166, are listed as binaries in the Washington Visual Double Star Catalogue (WDS). The binary nature of HD80606, 55 Cnc, and HD46375 is confirmed with both astrometry as well as photometry, thereby the proper motion of the companion of HD46375 was determined here for the first time.We derived the companion masses as well as the longterm stability regions for additional companions in these three binary systems. We can rule out further stellar companions around all stars in the sample with projected separations between 270AU and 2500AU, being sensitive to substellar companions with masses down to ∼60 MJup (S /N = 3). Furthermore we present evidence that the two components of the WDS binary BD–10°3166 are unrelated stars, i.e this system is a visual pair. The spectrophotometric distance of the primary (a K0 dwarf) is ∼67 pc, whereas the presumable secondary BD–10°3166B (a M4 to M5 dwarf) is located at a distance of 13 pc in the foreground. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献   

10.
We show that the dearth of brown dwarfs in short-period orbits around Solar-mass stars – the brown dwarf desert – can be understood as a consequence of inward migration within an evolving protoplanetary disc. Brown dwarf secondaries forming at the same time as the primary star have masses which are comparable to the initial mass of the protoplanetary disc. Subsequent disc evolution leads to inward migration, and destruction of the brown dwarf, via merger with the star. This is in contrast with massive planets, which avoid this fate by forming at a later epoch when the disc is close to being dispersed. Within this model, a brown dwarf desert arises because the mass at the hydrogen-burning limit is coincidentally comparable to the initial disc mass for a Solar mass star. Brown dwarfs should be found in close binaries around very low mass stars, around other brown dwarfs, and around Solar-type stars during the earliest phases of star formation.  相似文献   

11.
The discovery of isolated bodies of planetary mass has challenged the paradigm that planets form only as companions to stars. To determine whether 'isolated planets', brown dwarfs and stars can have a common origin, we have made deep submillimetre observations of part of the ρ Oph B star formation region. Spectroscopy of the 9-Jupiter-mass core Oph B-11 has revealed carbon monoxide line wings such as those of a protostar. Moreover, the estimated mass of outflowing gas lies on the force versus core-mass relation for protostars and protobrown dwarfs. This is evidence for a common process that can form any object between planetary and stellar masses in a molecular cloud. In a submillimetre continuum map, six compact cores in ρ Oph B were found to have masses presently below the deuterium-burning limit, extending the core mass function down to  0.01 M⊙  with the approximate form  d N /d M ∝ M −3/2  . If these lowest-mass cores are not transient and can collapse under gravity, then isolated planets should be very common in ρ Oph in the future, as is the case in the Orion star formation region. In fact, the isolated planetary objects that may form from these cores would outnumber the massive planets that have been found as companions to stars.  相似文献   

12.
Recent observations of nearby star forming regions have offered evidence that young brown dwarfs undergo a period of mass accretion analogous to the T Tauri phase observed in young stars. Brown dwarf analogs to stellar protostars, however, have yet to be definitively observed. These young, accreting objects would shed light on the nature of the dominant brown dwarf formation process, as well as provide ideal laboratories to investigate the dependence of the accretion mechanism on protostellar mass. Recent near infrared surveys have identified candidate proto‐brown dwarfs and characterized low mass protostars in nearby star forming regions. These techniques allow near infrared spectra to diagnose the effective temperature, accretion luminosity, magnetic field strength and rotation velocity of young low mass stars across the stellar/substellar boundary. The lowest mass proto‐brown dwarfs (M < 40 MJup), however, will prove challenging to observe given current near IR observational capabilities. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献   

13.
We present a simple physical mechanism that can account for the observed stellar mass spectrum for masses M ∗≳0.5 M⊙ . The model depends solely on the competitive accretion that occurs in stellar clusters where each star's accretion rate depends on the local gas density and the square of the accretion radius. In a stellar cluster, there are two different regimes depending on whether the gas or the stars dominate the gravitational potential. When the cluster is dominated by cold gas, the accretion radius is given by a tidal-lobe radius. This occurs as the cluster collapses towards a ρ  ∝  R −2 distribution. Accretion in this regime results in a mass spectrum with an asymptotic limit of γ =−3/2 (where Salpeter is γ =−2.35) . Once the stars dominate the potential and are virialized, which occurs first in the cluster core, the accretion radius is the Bondi–Hoyle radius. The resultant mass spectrum has an asymptotic limit of γ =−2 with slightly steeper slopes ( γ ≈−2.5) if the stars are already mass-segregated. Simulations of accretion on to clusters containing 1000 stars show that, as expected, the low-mass stars accumulate the majority of their masses during the gas-dominated phase whereas the high-mass stars accumulate the majority of their masses during the stellar-dominated phase. This results in a mass spectrum with a relatively shallow γ ≈3/2 power law for low-mass stars and a steeper power law for high-mass stars −2.5≲ γ ≤−2 . This competitive accretion model also results in a mass-segregated cluster.  相似文献   

14.
The study of young stellar populations has revealed that most stars are in binary or higher order multiple systems. In this study, the influence on the stellar initial mass function (IMF) of large quantities of unresolved multiple massive stars is investigated by taking into account the stellar evolution and photometrically determined system masses. The models, where initial masses are derived from the luminosity and colour of unresolved multiple systems, show that even under extreme circumstances (100 per cent binaries or higher order multiples), the difference between the power-law index of the mass function (MF) of all stars and the observed MF is small (≲0.1). Thus, if the observed IMF has the Salpeter index  α= 2.35  , then the true stellar IMF has an index not flatter than  α= 2.25  . Additionally, unresolved multiple systems may hide between 15 and 60 per cent of the underlying true mass of a star cluster. While already a known result, it is important to point out that the presence of a large number of unresolved binaries amongst pre-main-sequence stars induces a significant spread in the measured ages of these stars even if there is none. Also, lower mass stars in a single-age binary-rich cluster appear older than the massive stars by about 0.6 Myr.  相似文献   

15.
It appears that most stars are born in clusters, and that at birth most stars have circumstellar discs which are comparable in size to the separations between the stars. Interactions between neighbouring stars and discs are therefore likely to play a key role in determining disc lifetimes, stellar masses, and the separations and eccentricities of binary orbits. Such interactions may also cause fragmentation of the discs, thereby triggering the formation of additional stars.   We have carried out a series of simulations of star–disc interactions using an SPH code which treats self-gravity, hydrodynamic and viscous forces. We find that interactions between discs and stars provide a mechanism for removing energy from, or adding energy to, the orbits of the stars, and for truncating the discs. However, capture during such encounters is unlikely to be an important binary formation mechanism.   A more significant consequence of such encounters is that they can trigger fragmentation of the disc, via tidally and compressionally induced gravitational instabilities, leading to the formation of additional stars and substellar objects. When the disc spins and stellar orbits are randomly oriented, encounters lead to the formation of new companions to the original star in 20 per cent of encounters. If most encounters are prograde and coplanar, as suggested by simulations of dynamically triggered star formation, then new companions are formed in approximately 50 per cent of encounters.  相似文献   

16.
The spectral type is a key parameter in calibrating the temperature which is required to estimate the mass of young stars and brown dwarfs. We describe an approach developed to classify low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the Trapezium Cluster using red optical spectra, which can be applied to other star-forming regions. The classification uses two methods for greater accuracy: the use of narrow-band spectral indices which rely on the variation of the strength of molecular lines with spectral type and a comparison with other previously classified young, low-mass objects in the Chamaeleon I star-forming region. We have investigated and compared many different molecular indices and have identified a small number of indices which work well for classifying M-type objects in nebular regions. The indices are calibrated for young, pre-main-sequence objects whose spectra are affected by their lower surface gravities compared with those on the main sequence. Spectral types obtained are essentially independent of both reddening and nebular emission lines.
Confirmation of candidate young stars and brown dwarfs as bona fide cluster members may be accomplished with moderate resolution spectra in the optical region by an analysis of the strength of the gravity-sensitive Na doublet. It has been established that this feature is much weaker in these very young objects than in field dwarfs. A sodium spectral index is used to estimate the surface gravity and to demonstrate quantitatively the difference between young (1–2 Myr) objects, and dwarf and giant field stars.  相似文献   

17.
The UK Infrared Telescope Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) is the first of a new generation of infrared surveys. Here, we combine the data from two UKIDSS components, the Large Area Survey (LAS) and the Galactic Cluster Survey (GCS), with Two-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) data to produce an infrared proper motion survey for low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. In total, we detect 267 low-mass stars and brown dwarfs with significant proper motions. We recover all 10 known single L dwarfs and the one known T dwarf above the 2MASS detection limit in our LAS survey area and identify eight additional new candidate L dwarfs. We also find one new candidate L dwarf in our GCS sample. Our sample also contains objects from 11 potential common proper motion binaries. Finally, we test our proper motions and find that while the LAS objects have proper motions consistent with absolute proper motions, the GCS stars may have proper motions which are significantly underestimated. This is possibly due to the bulk motion of some of the local astrometric reference stars used in the proper motion determination.  相似文献   

18.
Stellar masses and ages are not directly observable parameters, and the methods used to determine them are based on the calibrating relations. In particular, the mass–luminosity relation, based on the masses of less than 200 well-studied binaries, is virtually the only way to estimate the mass of single stars. Thus, the development of methods for estimating stellar masses with accuracy comparable to direct methods is a problem of vital importance.
Here, we describe a method for estimating stellar masses and ages, which is based on the geometric similarity of evolutionary tracks for the stars at the same evolutionary stage in the Hertzsprung–Russell (HR) diagram. To examine the proposed approach, it has been applied to various test data sets. Application of the method, using synthetic stellar spectra Basel Stellar Library (of theoretical spectra; BaSeL), demonstrates that it allows determination of masses and ages of stars with a predictable distribution of uncertainties.
This statistical approach allows us to demonstrate the viability of the method using it on the set of double-lined eclipsing binaries with intermediate-mass and low-mass components which allows us to compare calculated characteristics with observational ones. As a result, the uncertainties of the stellar masses estimated with the proposed method are comparable with the accuracy of ones obtained from direct observations. This allows us to recommend the method for mass estimates of masses of single stars by the localization in the HR diagram.
As for the ages, the estimates for intermediate-mass stars are more reliable, while those obtained for low-mass stars are very uncertain, due both to slower movement of these stars in the HR diagram with age at stages close to the main sequence and to certain disagreements between theoretical models for this mass range.  相似文献   

19.
We have undertaken a series of hydrodynamic + N ‐body simulations in order to explore the binary properties of young stars. We find that multiple stars are a natural outcome of collapsing turbulent flows, with a high incidence of N > 2 multiples, specially among the higher mass objects. We find a positive correlation of multiplicity with primary mass and a companion frequency that decreases with age, during the first few Myr after formation. Binary brown dwarfs are rarely formed, in conflict with observations. Brown dwarfs as companions are predominantly found orbiting binaries or triples at large separations. The paucity of ultra low mass and low mass ratio binaries has been investigated further, and we tentatively conclude that their formation is intricately related to an appropriate selection of initial conditions and an accurate modelling of disc accretion and evolution. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献   

20.
Using improved, up-to-date stellar input physics tested against observations of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, we calculate the secular evolution of low-mass donor cataclysmic variables (CVs), including those that form with a brown-dwarf donor. Our models confirm the mismatch between the calculated minimum period ( P min70 min) and the observed short-period cut-off (80 min) in the CV period histogram. We find that tidal and rotational corrections applied to the one-dimensional stellar structure equations have no significant effect on the period minimum. Theoretical period distributions synthesized from our model sequences always show an accumulation of systems at the minimum period, a feature absent from the observed distribution. We suggest that non-magnetic CVs become unobservable as they are effectively trapped in permanent quiescence before they reach P min, and that small-number statistics may hide the period spike for magnetic CVs.  相似文献   

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