Combing the Brown Dwarf Desert with the APOGEE Catalog of Stellar and Substellar Companion Candidates

Troup, N. W.; De Lee, Nathan M.; Carlberg, Joleen K.; Nidever, David L.; Majewski, Steven R.; Stassun, Keivan; Covey, Kevin R.; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Allende-Prieto, C.; Hearty, Fred R.; APOGEE Substellar Companions Working Group
Referencia bibliográfica

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #227, id.#142.13

Fecha de publicación:
1
2016
Número de autores
11
Número de autores del IAC
1
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
While both exoplanets and stellar-mass companions have been found in extremely short-period orbits, there has been a paucity of brown dwarf (BD) companions orbiting Sun-like stars, a phenomenon known as the "Brown Dwarf Desert." However, more recent work has shown that this Desert might be limited in extent, only existing for small separation (a < 5-10 AU) companions, and may not be as "dry" as initially thought. It has been previously suggested that there may be an "F Dwarf Oasis," where the BD Desert observed for Solar-like stars ceases to exist for F dwarf stars. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) has compiled a catalog of ~400 of its most compelling stellar and substellar companion candidates orbiting host stars of various spectral types and evolutionary states. Among these candidates, approximately 100 had a derived companion mass in the BD regime (13-80 MJup), which is a significant increase compared to the number of known small separation (a < 1 AU) BD companions. Our sample appears to manifest the BD desert, but only for seperations < 0.2 AU rather than the previously held 5 AU. This is explained by one of the unique qualities of our sample when compared to previous companions surveys: Two-thirds of the BD candidates in our sample are orbiting evolved stars, most of which were F dwarfs during their main sequence lifetime, consistent with the notion of an F Dwarf Oasis. Using this sample, we further test this hypothesis by constraining the formation mechanisms of BD companions, and exploring their orbital evolution as their host evolves off the main sequence.