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E. L. Martin

Publications and source records attributed to E. L. Martin.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
arXiv2007

Space Velocities of L- and T-type Dwarfs

(Abridged) We have obtained radial velocities of a sample of 18 ultracool dwarfs (M6.5-T8) using high-resolution, near-infrared spectra obtained with NIRSPEC and the Keck II telescope. We have confirmed that the radial velocity of Gl 570 D is coincident with that of the K-type primary star Gl 570 A, thus providing additional support for their true companionship. The presence of planetary-mass companions around 2MASS J05591914-1404488 (T4.5V) has been analyzed using five NIRSPEC radial velocity measurements obtained over a period of 4.37 yr. We have computed UVW space motions for a total of 21 L and T dwarfs within 20 pc of the Sun. This population shows UVW velocities that nicely overlap the typical kinematics of solar to M-type stars within the same spatial volume. However, the mean Galactic (44.2 km/s) and tangential (36.5 km/s) velocities of the L and T dwarfs appear to be smaller than those of G to M stars. A significant fraction (~40%) of the L and T dwarfs lies near the Hyades moving group (0.4-2 Gyr), which contrasts with the 10-12% found for earlier-type stellar neighbors. Additionally, the distributions of all three UVW components (sigma_{UVW} = 30.2, 16.5, 15.8 km/s) and the distributions of the total Galactic (sigma_{v_tot} = 19.1 km/s) and tangential (sigma_{v_t} = 17.6 km/s) velocities derived for the L and T dwarf sample are narrower than those measured for nearby G, K, and M-type stars, but similar to the dispersions obtained for F stars. This suggests that, in the solar neighborhood, the L- and T-type ultracool dwarfs in our sample (including brown dwarfs) is kinematically younger than solar-type to early M stars with likely ages in the interval 0.5-4 Gyr.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2007

Two T dwarfs from the UKIDSS Early Data Release

We report on the first ultracool dwarf discoveries from the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey Early Data Release (LAS EDR), in particular the discovery of T dwarfs which are fainter and more distant than those found using the 2MASS and SDSS surveys. We aim to show that our methodologies for searching the ~27 sq degs of the LAS EDR are successful for finding both L and T dwarfs $via$ cross-correlation with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR4 release. While the area searched so far is small, the numbers of objects found shows great promise for near-future releases of the LAS and great potential for finding large numbers of such dwarfs. Ultracool dwarfs are selected by combinations of their YJH(K) UKIDSS colours and SDSS DR4 z-J and i-z colours, or, lower limits on these red optical/infrared colours in the case of DR4 dropouts. After passing visual inspection tests, candidates have been followed up by methane imaging and spectroscopy at 4m and 8m-class facilities. Our main result is the discovery following CH4 imaging and spectroscopy of a T4.5 dwarf, ULASJ 1452+0655, lying ~80pc distant. A further T dwarf candidate, ULASJ 1301+0023, has very similar CH4 colours but has not yet been confirmed spectroscopically. We also report on the identification of a brighter L0 dwarf, and on the selection of a list of LAS objects designed to probe for T-like dwarfs to the survey J-band limit. Our findings indicate that the combination of the UKIDSS LAS and SDSS surveys provide an excellent tool for identifying L and T dwarfs down to much fainter limits than previously possible. Our discovery of one confirmed and one probable T dwarf in the EDR is consistent with expectations from the previously measured T dwarf density on the sky.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

Discovery of Radio Emission from the Tight M8 Binary: LP 349-25

We present radio observations of 8 ultracool dwarfs with a narrow spectral type range (M8-M9.5) using the Very Large Array at 8.5 GHz. Only the tight M8 binary LP 349-25 was detected. LP 349-25 is the tenth ultracool dwarf system detected in radio and its trigonometric parallax pi = 67.6 mas, recently measured by Gatewood et al., makes it the furthest ultracool system detected by the Very Large Array to date, and the most radio-luminous outside of obvious flaring activity or variability. With a separation of only 1.8 AU, masses of the components of LP 349-25 can be measured precisely without any theoretical assumptions (Forveille et al.), allowing us to clarify their fully-convective status and hence the kind of magnetic dynamo in these components which may play an important role to explain our detection of radio emission from these objects. This also makes LP 349-25 an excellent target for further studies with better constraints on the correlations between X-ray, radio emission and stellar parameters such as mass, age, temperature, and luminosity in ultracool dwarfs.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

Are isolated planetary-mass objects really isolated? A brown dwarf-exoplanet system candidate in the sigma Orionis cluster

The recent detection by direct imaging of three giant planets at wide separation (50-250 AU) from their primaries has raised the question about the ``true isolation'' of planetary-mass objects in clusters. Our goal was to test the possibility that some free-floating planetary-mass object could in fact be part of wide planetary systems. We searched in the literature for stellar and brown-dwarf member candidates of the sigma Orionis cluster at small angular separations from published candidate planetary-mass objects. We found one candidate planetary system, SE 70, composed of an X-ray source and a planetary-mass object, namely S Ori 68, separated by only 4.6 arcsec. In order to assess the cluster membership of the X-ray source, we obtained mid-resolution optical spectroscopy using ISIS on the William Herschel Telescope. We also compiled additional data on the target from available astronomical catalogues. We have found that SE 70 follows the spectrophotometric sequence of the cluster and displays spectroscopic features of youth, such as lithium in absorption and chromospheric Halpha emission. The radial velocity is consistent with cluster membership. Hence, SE 70 is very probably a sigma Orionis cluster member. The projected physical separation between SE 70 and S Ori 68 is 1700+/-300 AU at the distance of the cluster. If the common proper motion is confirmed in the near future, the system would be composed of an M5-6 brown dwarf with an estimated mass of ~45 M_Jup and an L5+/-2 giant planet with an estimated mass of ~5 M_Jup. It would be the widest and one of the lowest-mass planetary systems known so far.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

Magnetic fields in M dwarfs: rapid magnetic field variability in EV Lac

We report here our spectropolarimetric observations obtained using the Espadons/CFHT high resolution spectrograph of two M dwarf stars which standard models suggest are fully convective: EV Lac (M3.5) and HH And (M5.5). The difference in their rotational velocity makes them good targets to study the dependence of the magnetic field topology in M dwarfs on rotation. Our results reveal some aspects of the field topology in EV Lac and HH And. We measured mean longitudinal magnetic field strengths (Bz) in EV Lac ranging from 18+-3 G to -40+-3 G. The Bz variations are seen to occur in a timescale of less than 50 minutes, significantly shorter than the rotation period, and are not due to a flaring event. We discuss some formation scenarios of the Zeeman signatures found in EV Lac. For HH And we could not detect circular polarization and thus we place an upper limit to Bz of 5 G.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

LP 714-37: A wide pair of ultracool dwarfs actually is a triple

LP 714-37 was identified by Phan-Bao et al. (2005) as one of the very few wide pairs of very low mass (VLM) stars known to date, with a separation of 33 AU. Here we present adaptive optics imaging which resolves the secondary of the wide pair into a tighter binary, with a projected angular separation of 0.36 arcsec, or 7 AU. The estimated spectral types of LP 714-37B and LP 714-37C are M8.0 and M8.5. We discuss the implications of this finding for brown dwarf formation scenarios.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

A multiwavelength radial velocity search for planets around the brown dwarf LP 944-20

The nearby brown dwarf LP 944-20 has been monitored for radial velocity variability at optical and near-infrared wavelengths using the VLT/UVES and the Keck/NIRSPEC spectrographs, respectively. The UVES radial velocity data obtained over 14 nights spanning a baseline of 841 days shows significant variability with an amplitude of 3.5 km s$^{-1}$. The periodogram analysis of the UVES data indicates a possible period between 2.5 hours and 3.7 hours, which is likely due to the rotation of the brown dwarf. However, the NIRSPEC data obtained over 6 nights shows an rms dispersion of only 0.36 km s$^{-1}$ and do not follow the periodic trend. These results indicate that the variability seen with UVES is likely to be due to rotationally modulated inhomogeneous surface features. We suggest that future planet searches around very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs using radial velocities will be better conducted in the near-infrared than in the optical.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

Observations of Ultracool dwarfs with ULTRACAM on the VLT: a search for weather

We present multi-colour photometry of four field ultracool dwarfs with the triple-beam photometer ultracam. Data were obtained simultaneously in the Sloan-g' band and a specially designed narrow-band NaI filter. The previously reported 1.8-hr period of Kelu-1 is here recovered in the g'-band, but the lack of any significant variability in the NaI light of this object precludes any conclusion as to the cause of the variability. 2MASS 2057-0252 and DENIS 1441-0945 show no convincing evidence for variability. 2MASS 1300+1912, on the other hand, shows good evidence for gradual trends in both bands at the 5% level. These trends are anti-correlated at a high level of significance, a result which is incompatible with models of starspot-induced variability. It would seem likely that dust cloud "weather" is responsible for the short-term variability in this object.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

Resolved Hubble Space spectroscopy of ultracool binary systems

Using the low-resolution mode of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) aboard the \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} (HST), we have obtained spatially resolved spectra of 20 ultracool dwarfs. 18 of them belong to 9 known very low-mass binary systems with angular separations in the range 0.37-0.098 arcseconds. We have derived spectral types in the range dM7.5 to dL6 from the PC3 index, and by comparing our STIS spectra with ground-based spectra of similar spectral resolution from Mart{\'ı}n et al. (1999). We have searched for H$_α$ emission in each object but it was clearly detected in only 2 of them. We find that the distribution of H$_α$ emission in our sample is statistically different from that of single field dwarfs, suggesting an intriguing anticorrelation between chromospheric activity and binarity for M7--M9.5 dwarfs. We provide measuments of the strength of the main photospheric features and the PC3 index, and we derive calibrations of spectral subclasses versus F814W and K-band absolute magnitudes for a subset of 10 dwarfs in 5 binaries that have known trigonometric parallaxes.

physics.space-ph↗
arXiv2006

Spectroscopic rotational velocities of brown dwarfs

We have obtained projected rotation velocities (vsini) of a sample of 19 ultracool dwarfs with spectral types in the interval M6.5-T8 using high-resolution, near-infrared spectra obtained with NIRSPEC and the Keck II telescope. Among our targets there are two young brown dwarfs, two likely field stars, and fifteen likely brown dwarfs (30-72 Mjup) of the solar neighborhood. Our results indicate that the T-type dwarfs are fast rotators in marked contrast to M-type stars. We have derived vsini velocities between <15 and 40 km/s for them, and have found no clear evidence for T dwarfs rotating strongly faster than L dwarfs. However, there is a hint for an increasing lower envelope on moving from mid-M to the L spectral types in the vsini-spectral type diagram that was previously reported in the literature; our vsini results extend it to even cooler types. Assuming that field brown dwarfs have a size of 0.08-0.1 Rsol, we can place an upper limit of 12.5 h on the equatorial rotation period of T-type brown dwarfs. In addition, we have compared our vsini measurements to spectroscopic rotational velocities of very young brown dwarfs of similar mass available in the literature. The comparison, although model-dependent, suggests that brown dwarfs lose some angular momentum during their contraction; however, their spin down time seems to be significantly longer than that of solar-type to early-M stars.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Multiplicity of very low-mass objects in the Upper Scorpius OB association: a possible wide binary population

We report the initial results of a VLT/NACO high spatial resolution imaging survey for multiple systems among 58 M-type members of the nearby Upper Scorpius OB association. Nine pairs with separations below 100 have been resolved. Their small angular separations and the similarity in the brightness of the components (DMagK <1 for all of them), indicate there is a reasonable likelihood several of them are true binaries rather than chance projections. Follow-up imaging observations with WHT/LIRIS of the two widest binaries confirm that their near-infrared colours are consistent with physical very low mass binaries. For one of these two binaries, WHT/LIRIS spectra of each component were obtained. We find that the two components have similar M6-M7 spectral types and signatures of low-gravity, as expected for a young brown dwarf binary in this association. Our preliminary results indicate a possible population of very low-mass binaries with semimajor axis in the range 100 AU 150 AU, which has not been seen in the Pleiades open cluster. If these candidates are confirmed (one is confirmed by this work), these results would indicate that the binary properties of very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs may depend on the environment where they form.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Discovery of a nearby M9 dwarf

We report the discovery of a new M9.0 dwarf at only 8.2 pc, which we identified in our search for nearby ultracool dwarf (I-J >= 3.0, later than M8.0) in the DENIS database. We measure a very high proper motion of 2.5 arc-sec/yr. The PC3 index measured from its low-resolution spectrum gives a spectrophotometric distance of 8.2 pc. This makes it the third closest M9.0 dwarf.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

A Hubble Space Telescope ACS Search for Brown Dwarf Binaries in the Pleiades Open Cluster

We present the results of a high-resolution imaging survey for brown dwarf binaries in the Pleiades open cluster. The observations were carried out with the Advance Camera for Surveys onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. Our sample consists of 15 bona-fide brown dwarfs. We confirm 2 binaries and detect their orbital motion, but we did not resolve any new binary candidates in the separation range between 5.4AU and 1700AU and masses in the range 0.035--0.065~Msun. Together with the results of our previous study (Martin et al., 2003), we can derive a visual binary frequency of 13.3$^{+13.7}_{-4.3}$\% for separations greater than 7~AU masses between 0.055--0.065~M$_{\sun}$ and mass ratios between 0.45--0.9$<q<$1.0. The other observed properties of Pleiades brown dwarf binaries (distributions of separation and mass ratio) appear to be similar to their older counterparts in the field.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

NAHUAL: A cool spectrograph for planets of ultra-cool objects

We present the status of an ongoing study to built a a high resolution near infrared Echelle spectrograph (NAHUAL) for the 10.4-m-Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) which will be especially optimised for planet searches by means of high precision radial velocity measurements. We show that infrared radial velocity programs are particularly suitable to search for planets very low mass stars and brown dwarfs, as well as active stars. The goal of NAHUAL is to reach an accuracy of the radial velocity measurement of a few m/s, which would allow the detection of planets with a few earth-masses orbiting low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. It is planed that NAHUAL covers simultaneously the full wavelength range in the J, H, and K-band, and will also serve as a general purpose high resolution near infrared spectrograph of the GTC. The planed instrument will have a resolution of R=50,000 with a 0.175 arcsec slit, and an AO-system. An absorption cell will serve as a simultaneous wavelength reference.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

The first wide ultracool binary dwarf in the field: DENIS-J055146.0-443412.2 (M8.5 + L0)

We present observations of a new very low mass field binary, discovered during an infrared imaging survey of 250 DENIS L and very late-M dwarfs. DENIS-J055146.0-443412.2 is an M8.5+L0 pair, with a physical separation of over 200 AU. This makes it the widest very low mass binary known in the field, by an order of magnitude. Such a system is fragile, and it would not have survived a close encounter with a third body. Its existence demonstrate that some very low mass stars/brown dwarfs form without ejection from a multiple system, or any other strong dynamical interaction.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Discovery of a widely separated binary system of very low mass stars

We report our discovery of a nearby wide binary system, LP 714-37 AB. Phan-Bao et al. identified LP 714-37 as a mid-M dwarf during a cross-identification of the NLTT and DENIS catalogues. Our CCD images resolve the system into a binary with a projected angular separation of 1.8 arcsec, or 33 AU, and low-resolution optical spectra give spectral types of M5.5 (LP 714-37A) and M7.5 (LP 714-37B). This makes LP 714-37 AB one of very few widely separated (separation > 30 AU) very low-mass binary systems known in the field, and we discuss it in the context of the multiplicity properties of very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

New neighbours VI. Spectroscopy of DENIS nearby stars candidates

We present spectra of 36 nearby star candidates and 3 red giant candidates, identified in the DENIS database by Phan-Bao et al. (2003). 32 of the dwarf candidates are indeed nearby red dwarfs, with spectral types from M5.5 to M8.5. Out of 11 targets with low proper motion (mu < 0.1$ arc-sec/yr) but a Reduced Proper Motion above an inclusive threshold, 9 are red dwarfs. The 4 contaminants are all reddened F-K main sequence stars, and they could have been eliminated by checking for some well known high latitude molecular clouds. These stars might be of interest as probes of interstellar absorption. For the red dwarfs we derive spectral types and spectroscopic distances, using a new calibration of the PC3 spectral index to absolute magnitudes in the I, J, H and K photometric bands. We confirm 2 new members of the 12 pc volume (2 new M8.5), and one M7.5 NLTT object closer than 10pc. We also show that one quarter of the stars with photometric distances under 30 pc have too small a proper motion for inclusion in the NLTT catalog.

astro-ph↗