Direct Imaging Explorations for Companions from the Subaru/IRD Strategic Program II; Discovery of a Brown-dwarf Companion around a Nearby Mid-M-dwarf LSPM J1446+4633

Uyama, Taichi; Kuzuhara, Masayuki; Beichman, Charles; Hirano, Teruyuki; Kotani, Takayuki; An, Qier; Brandt, Timothy D.; Janson, Markus; Mawet, Dimitri; Mori, Mayuko; Sato, Bun'ei; Stoeva, Denitza; Tamura, Motohide; Aizawa, Masataka; Cale, Bryson; Henning, Thomas; Ishikawa, Hiroyuki Tako; Narita, Norio; Ogihara, Masahiro; Sanghi, Aniket; Trifonov, Trifon; Xuan, Jerry; Akiyama, Eiji; Harakawa, Hiroki; Hodapp, Klaus; Ishizuka, Masato; Jacobson, Shane; Kokubo, Eiichiro; Konishi, Mihoko; Kudo, Tomoyuki; Kurokawa, Takashi; Kwon, Jungmi; Nishikawa, Jun; Omiya, Masashi; Serizawa, Takuma; Teng, Huan-Yu; Ueda, Akitoshi; Vievard, Sebastien
Bibliographical reference

The Astronomical Journal

Advertised on:
11
2025
Number of authors
38
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We report the discovery of a new directly imaged brown-dwarf companion with Keck/NIRC2+pyWFS around a nearby mid-type M-dwarf LSPM J1446+4633 (hereafter J1446). The L' -band contrast (4.5 × 10‑3) is consistent with a ∼20–60 MJup object at 1–10 Gyr and our two-epoch NIRC2 data suggest a ∼30% (∼3.1σ) variability in its L' -band flux. We incorporated Gaia DR3 non-single-star catalog into the orbital fitting by combining the Subaru/IRD radial velocity monitoring results, NIRC2 direct imaging (DI) results, and Gaia proper motion acceleration. As a result, we derive 59.8‑1.4+1.5MJup and ≈4.3 au for the dynamical mass and the semimajor axis of the companion J1446B, respectively. J1446B is one of the intriguing late-T dwarfs showing variability at L' -band for future atmospheric studies with the constrained dynamical mass. Because the J1446 system is accessible with various observation techniques such as astrometry, DI, and high-resolution spectroscopy including radial velocity measurement, it has a potential as a great benchmark system to improve our understanding for cool dwarfs.