Bibcode
Riaz, B.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 701, Issue 1, pp. 571-586 (2009).
Fecha de publicación:
8
2009
Revista
Número de citas
19
Número de citas referidas
19
Descripción
We present a compositional analysis of the 10 μm silicate spectra for
brown dwarf disks in the Taurus and Upper Scorpius (UppSco) star-forming
regions, using archival Spitzer/Infrared Spectrograph observations. A
variety in the silicate features is observed, ranging from a narrow
profile with a peak at 9.8 μm, to nearly flat, low-contrast features.
For most objects, we find nearly equal fractions for the large-grain and
crystalline mass fractions, indicating both processes to be active in
these disks. The median crystalline mass fraction for the Taurus brown
dwarfs is found to be 20%, a factor of ~2 higher than the median
reported for the higher mass stars in Taurus. The large-grain mass
fractions are found to increase with an increasing strength in the X-ray
emission, while the opposite trend is observed for the crystalline mass
fractions. A small 5% of the Taurus brown dwarfs are still found to be
dominated by pristine interstellar medium-like dust, with an amorphous
submicron grain mass fraction of ~87%. For 15% of the objects, we find a
negligible large-grain mass fraction, but a >60% small amorphous
silicate fraction. These may be the cases where substantial grain growth
and dust sedimentation have occurred in the disks, resulting in a high
fraction of amorphous submicron grains in the disk surface. Among the
UppSco brown dwarfs, only usd161939 has a signal-to-noise ratio high
enough to properly model its silicate spectrum. We find a 74% small
amorphous grain and a ~26% crystalline mass fraction for this object.