Completing A Near-Infrared Search for Very Low Mass Companions to Stars within 10 pc of the Sun

Details Completing A Near-Infrared Search for Very Low Mass Companions to Stars within 10 pc of the Sun Completing A Near-Infrared Search for Very Low Mass Companions to Stars within 10 pc of the Sun

Jul 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002hst..prop.9485g&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9485

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #9485

Scientific paper

Most stars are fainter and less massive than the Sun. Nevertheless, our knowledge of very low mass {VLM} red dwarfs and their brown dwarf cousins is quite limited. Unknown are the true luminosity function {LF}, multiplicity fraction, mass function, and mass-luminosity relation for red and brown dwarfs, though they dominate the Galaxy in both numbers and total mass. The best way to constrain these relations is a search for faint companions to nearby stars. Such a search has several advantages over field surveys, including greater sensitivity to VLM objects and the availability of precise parallaxes from which luminosities and masses can be derived. We propose to complete our four-filter NICMOS snapshot search for companions to stars within 10 pc. With a 10 sigma detection limit of M_J 20 at 10 pc, we can detect companions between 10 and 100 AU that are at least 9 mag fainter than the empirical end of the main sequence and at least 6.5 mag fainter than the brown dwarf Gl 229B. When completed, our search will be the largest, most sensitive, volume-limited search for VLM companions ever undertaken. Our four-filter search will permit unambiguous identification of VLM-companion candidates for follow-up observation. Together with IR speckle and deep imaging surveys, our program will firmly establish the LF for VLM companions at separations of 1-1000 AU and the multiplicity fraction of all stars within 10 pc.

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