• DOI:10.1088/2041-8205/732/2/L29
• Corpus ID: 118382542

THE ULTRA COOL BROWN DWARF COMPANION OF WD 0806–661B: AGE, MASS, AND FORMATION MECHANISM

@article{Rodriguez2011THEUC,
  title={THE ULTRA COOL BROWN DWARF COMPANION OF WD 0806–661B: AGE, MASS, AND FORMATION MECHANISM},
  author={David R. Rodriguez and B. Zuckerman and Carl Melis and Inseok Song},
  journal={The Astrophysical Journal Letters},
  year={2011},
  volume={732}
}

• D. Rodriguez, B. Zuckerman, +1 author I. Song
• Published 18 March 2011
• Physics, Geology
• The Astrophysical Journal Letters

We have combined multi-epoch images from the Infrared Side Port Imager on the CTIO 4 m telescope to derive a 3σ limit of J = 21.7 for the ultra cool brown dwarf companion to WD 0806–661 (GJ 3483). We find that J − [4.5] > 4.95, redder than any other brown dwarf known to date. With theoretical evolutionary models and ages 1.5–2.7 Gyr, we estimate the brown dwarf companion to have mass <10–13 MJup and temperature ≲ 400 K, providing evidence that this is among the coolest brown dwarfs currently known. The range of masses for this object is consistent with that anticipated from Jeans-mass fragmentation and we present this as the likely formation mechanism. However, we find that substellar companions of similar mass (∼7–17 MJup) are distributed over a wide range of semimajor axes, which suggests that giant planet and low-mass brown dwarf formation overlap in this mass range.