A Keck/HST Survey for Companions to Low-Luminosity Dwarfs

Abstract

We present preliminary results of an imaging survey for companions to low-luminosity dwarfs with spectral types ranging from M7 to L9. A K-band study with the Near Infrared Camera (NIRC) at the Keck telescope discriminates against background sources by searching for common proper motion. A complimentary HST/WFPC2 snapshot survey is better able to resolve close companions, but is not as sensitive at wide separations. Preliminary results from the Keck/NIRC survey have yielded the detection of 3 binaries in a sample of 10 L dwarfs, including one previously identified in HST imaging (Marti'n et al. 1999). All three have equal-component luminosities and physical separations between 5 and 10 AU. This result leads us to speculate that binary companions to L dwarfs are common, that similar-mass systems predominate, and that their distribution peaks at radial distances in accord both with M dwarf binaries and with the radial location of Jovian planets in our own solar system. To fully establish these conjectures, however, will require quantitative analysis of an appropriate sample. To this end, we outline a Bayesian scheme to test models of the underlying companion distribution with our completed imaging survey.