A deep infrared photometric survey for Pleiades brown dwarfs toward the deuterium burning limit

Details A deep infrared photometric survey for Pleiades brown dwarfs toward the deuterium burning limit A deep infrared photometric survey for Pleiades brown dwarfs toward the deuterium burning limit

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004phdt........28s&link_type=abstract

Ph.D dissertation, 2004. 159 pages; United States -- California: University of California, Los Angeles; 2004. Publication Numbe

Computer Science

1

Infrared, Photometric, Pleiades, Brown Dwarfs, Deuterium Burning

Scientific paper

This dissertation presents the results of a deep infrared survey for low mass brown dwarfs in the Pleiades cluster. By comparing J-band (1.25 mm) and I-band (0.83 mm) photometry of a ~450 arcmin 2 area with the latest theoretical models of pre-main sequence substellar evolution, 25 preliminary candidates were initially identified with J-band magnitudes and I-J color limits consistent with Pleiades membership. The mean 10s completeness limits of J = 19.25 mag and I = 23.25 mag correspond to an effective depth of 23M Jup at which Pleiades members of late L spectral types and temperatures near ~1650K (I-J color ~4 mag) are predicted to begin making a transition to methane dominated spectra. With 4s limiting magnitudes of J = 20.6 mag and I = 24.6 mag, the survey achieved a marginal sensitivity to the detection of 18M Jup brown dwarfs at ~1500 K.
Upon further investigation of the image profiles, 7 candidates were suspected to be extended, reddened extragalactic sources. Of the 18 remaining sources, three are more likely field stars, one is a previously known Pleiades brown dwarf (BPL 81) and 14 were potentially new substellar candidates, all ranging in membership-dependent mass from 21M Jup to 46M Jup . Follow-up infrared photometry and higher resolution image profile analysis with the Keck telescopes have eliminated all except ~5 new substellar Pleiades candidates as likely cluster members. Additional follow-up observations including proper motion and spectral analysis as well as more comprehensive multi-band imaging will be required to clarify membership likelihoods for these Pleiades candidates. Given an overall, survey-wide yield of likely substellar Pleiades members including 1 previously-known medium mass brown dwarf and an estimate of 1 +/- 1 new low mass brown dwarfs, a mass function index of a ~ [Special characters omitted.] is derived using a power-law of the form dN/dM = cM -a. Any of the remaining unique substellar candidates presented herein, if confirmed as cluster members, would be the lowest mass brown dwarfs discovered in the Pleiades by any survey to date.

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