Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1999-06-12
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
13 pages, 2 figures, to be published in Astrophysical Journal, Vol 522, September 10, 1999
Scientific paper
10.1086/307696
A recent model for the stellar initial mass function (IMF), in which the stellar masses are randomly sampled down to the thermal Jeans mass from hierarchically structured pre-stellar clouds, predicts that regions of ultra-cold CO gas, such as those recently found in nearby galaxies by Allen and collaborators, should make an abundance of Brown Dwarfs with relatively few normal stars. This result comes from the low value of the thermal Jeans mass, considering that the hierarchical cloud model always gives the Salpeter IMF slope above this lower mass limit. The ultracold CO clouds in the inner disk of M31 have T~3K and pressures that are probably 10 times higher than in the solar neighborhood. This gives a mass at the peak of the IMF equal to 0.01 Msun, well below the Brown Dwarf limit of 0.08 Msun. Using a functional approximation to the IMF, the ultracold clouds would have 50% of the star-like mass and 90% of the objects below the Brown Dwarf limit. The brightest of the Brown Dwarfs in M31 should have an apparent, extinction-corrected K-band magnitude of ~21 mag in their pre-main sequence phase.
No associations
LandOfFree
A Prediction of Brown Dwarfs in Ultracold Molecular Gas does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A Prediction of Brown Dwarfs in Ultracold Molecular Gas, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Prediction of Brown Dwarfs in Ultracold Molecular Gas will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-676406