Bibcode
Zapatero Osorio, M. R.; Gálvez Ortiz, M. C.; Bihain, G.; Bailer-Jones, C. A. L.; Rebolo, R.; Henning, Th.; Boudreault, S.; Béjar, V. J. S.; Goldman, B.; Mundt, R.; Caballero, J. A.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 568, id.A77, 16 pp.
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8
2014
Journal
Citations
36
Refereed citations
33
Description
Aims: We aim at identifying the least massive population of the
solar metallicity, young (120 Myr), nearby (133.5 pc) Pleiades star
cluster with the ultimate goal of understanding the physical properties
of intermediate-age, free-floating, low-mass brown dwarfs and giant
planetary-mass objects, and deriving the cluster substellar mass
function across the deuterium-burning mass limit at ≈0.012
M⊙. Methods: We performed a deep photometric and
astrometric J- and H-band survey covering an area of ~0.8
deg2 in the Pleiades cluster. The images with completeness
and limiting magnitudes of J,H ≈ 20.2 and ≈21.5 mag were acquired
~9 yr apart, allowing us to derive proper motions with a typical
precision of ±6 mas yr-1. For the cluster distance and
age, the survey is sensitive to Pleiades members with masses in the
interval ≈0.2-0.008 M⊙. J- and H-band data were
complemented with Z, K, and mid-infrared magnitudes up to 4.6 μm
coming from the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS), the WISE
catalog, and follow-up observations of our own. Pleiades member
candidates were selected to have proper motions compatible with that of
the cluster, and colors following the known Pleiades sequence in the
interval J = 15.5-18.8 mag, and ZUKIDSS - J ≥ 2.3 mag or Z
nondetections for J> 18.8 mag. Results: We found a neat
sequence of astrometric and photometric Pleiades substellar member
candidates with two or more proper motion measurements and with
magnitudes and masses in the intervals J = 15.5-21.2 mag and
≈0.072-0.008 M⊙. The faintest objects show very red
near- and mid-infrared colors exceeding those of field high-gravity
dwarfs by ≥0.5 mag. This agrees with the reported properties of field
young L-type dwarfs and giant planets orbiting stars of ages of ~100
Myr. The Pleiades photometric sequence does not show any color turn-over
because of the presence of photospheric methane absorption down to J =
20.3 mag, which is about 1 mag fainter than predicted by the combination
of evolutionary models and colors computed from model atmospheres. The
astrometric data suggest that Pleiades brown dwarfs have a proper motion
dispersion of 6.4-7.5 mas yr-1, and are dynamically relaxed
at the age of the cluster. The Pleiades mass function extends down to
the deuterium burning-mass threshold, with a slope fairly similar to
that of other young star clusters and stellar associations. The new
discoveries may become benchmark objects for interpreting the
observations of the emerging young ultracool population and giant
planets around stars in the solar neighborhood.
Related projects
Very Low Mass Stars, Brown Dwarfs and Planets
Our goal is to study the processes that lead to the formation of low mass stars, brown dwarfs and planets and to characterize the physical properties of these objects in various evolutionary stages. Low mass stars and brown dwarfs are likely the most numerous type of objects in our Galaxy but due to their low intrinsic luminosity they are not so
Rafael
Rebolo López