L Dwarfs and the Substellar Mass Function

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dc.creatorReid, I. N.
dc.creatorKirkpatrick, J. D.
dc.creatorLiebert, J.
dc.creatorBurrows, A.
dc.creatorGizis, J. E.
dc.creatorBurgasser, A.
dc.creatorDahn, C. C.
dc.creatorMonet, D.
dc.creatorCutri, R.
dc.creatorBeichman, C. A.
dc.creatorSkrutskie, M.
dc.date1999-05-13
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:51:30Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:51:30Z
dc.descriptionAnalysis of initial observations from near-infrared sky surveys has shown that the resulting photometric catalogues, combined with far-red optical data, provide an extremely effective method of finding isolated, very low-temperature objects in the general field. Follow-up observations have already identified more than 25 sources with temperatures cooler than the latest M dwarfs. A comparison with detailed model predictions (Burrows & Sharp) indicates that these L dwarfs have effective temperatures between ~2000\pm100 K and 1500\pm100 K, while the available trigonometric parallax data place their luminosities at between 10^{-3.5} and 10^{-4.3} L_solar. Those properties, together with the detection of lithium in one-third of the objects, are consistent with the majority having substellar masses. The mass function cannot be derived directly, since only near-infrared photometry and spectral types are available for most sources, but we can incorporate VLM/brown dwarf models in simulations of the Solar Neighbourhood population and constrain Psi(M) by comparing the predicted L-dwarf surface densities and temperature distributions against observations from the DENIS and 2MASS surveys. The data, although sparse, can be represented by a power-law mass function, Psi(M) ~ M^{-alpha}, with 1 < alpha < 2. Current results favour a value nearer the lower limit. If alpha = 1.3, then the local space density of 0.075 > M/M_solar > 0.01 brown dwarfs is 0.10 systems pc^{-3}. In that case brown dwarfs are twice as common as main-sequence stars, but contribute no more than ~15% of the total mass of the disk.
dc.descriptionTo appear in Astrophysical Journal (20 August 1999). 44 Pages. For related preprints, see http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/overview/ldwarfs.html
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9905170
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9905170
dc.identifierAstrophys.J.521:613-629,1999
dc.identifierdoi:10.1086/307589
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/184838
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleL Dwarfs and the Substellar Mass Function
dc.typetext

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