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A Population Study of Wide-Separation Brown Dwarf Companions to Main Sequence StarsIncreased interest in infrared astronomy has opened the frontier to study cooler objects that shed significant light on the formation of planetary systems. Brown dwarf research provides a wealth of information useful for sorting through a myriad of proposed formation theories. Our study combines observational data from 2MASS with rigorous computer simulations to estimate the true population of long-range (greater than 1000 AU) brown dwarf companions in the solar neighborhood (less than 25 pc from Earth). Expanding on Gizis et al. (2001), we have found the margin of error in previous estimates to be significantly underestimated after we included orbit eccentricity, longitude of pericenter, angle of inclination, field star density, and primary and secondary luminosities as parameters influencing the companion systems in observational studies. We apply our simulation results to current L- and T-dwarf catalogs to provide updated estimates on the frequency of wide-separation brown dwarf companions to main sequence stars.
Document ID
20060010250
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Smith, Jeffrey J.
(California Univ. Berkeley, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 2005
Publication Information
Publication: Summer Student Research Presentations
Subject Category
Astronomy
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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