Robust detection of quasi-periodic variability: A HAWK-I mini survey of late-T dwarfs

We present HAWK-I J-band light curves of five late-type T dwarfs (T6.5-T7.5) with a typical duration of four hours, and investigate the evidence for quasi-periodic photometric variability on intra-night timescales. Our photometry reaches precisions in the range 7-20 mmag, after removing instrumental systematics that correlate with sky background, seeing and airmass. Based upon a Lomb-Scargle periodogram analysis, the latest object in the sample - ULAS J2321 (T7.5) - appears to show quasi-periodic variability with a period of 1.64 hours and an amplitude of 3 mmag. Given the low amplitude of variability and presence of systematics in our lightcurves, we discuss a Bayesian approach to robustly determine if quasi-periodic variability is present in a lightcurve affected by red noise. Using this approach, we conclude that the evidence for quasi-periodic variability in ULAS J2321 is not significant. As a result, we suggest that studies which identify quasi-periodic variables using the false alarm probability from a Lomb-Scargle periodogram are likely to over-estimate the number of variable objects, even if field stars are used to set a higher false alarm probability threshold. Instead we argue that a hybrid approach combining a false alarm probability cut, followed by Bayesian model selection, is necessary for robust identification of quasi-periodic variability in lightcurves with red noise

Benchmark ultra-cool dwarfs in widely separated binary systems

Ultra-cool dwarfs as wide companions to subgiants, giants, white dwarfs and main sequence stars can be very good benchmark objects, for which we can infer physical properties with minimal reference to theoretical models, through association with the primary stars. We have searched for benchmark ultra-cool dwarfs in widely separated binary systems using SDSS, UKIDSS, and 2MASS. We then estimate spectral types using SDSS spectroscopy and multi-band colors, place constraints on distance, and perform proper motions calculations for all candidates which have sufficient epoch baseline coverage. Analysis of the proper motion and distance constraints show that eight of our ultra-cool dwarfs are members of widely separated binary systems. Another L3.5 dwarf, SDSS 0832, is shown to be a companion to the bright K3 giant Eta Cancri. Such primaries can provide age and metallicity constraints for any companion objects, yielding excellent benchmark objects. This is the first wide ultra-cool dwarf + giant binary system identified.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, conference, "New Technologies for Probing the Diversity of Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets", oral tal

The Formation and Early Evolution of Low-mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs

The discovery of large numbers of young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs over the last decade has made it possible to investigate star formation and early evolution in a previously unexplored mass regime. In this review, we begin by describing surveys for low-mass members of nearby associations, open clusters, star-forming regions and the methods used to characterize their stellar properties. We then use observations of these populations to test theories of star formation and evolution at low masses. For comparison to the formation models, we consider the initial mass function, stellar multiplicity, circumstellar disks, protostellar characteristics, and kinematic and spatial distributions at birth for low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. To test the evolutionary models, we focus on measurements of dynamical masses and empirical Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams for young brown dwarfs and planetary companions.Comment: Final published version at http://www.annualreviews.org/journal/astr

Two new ultracool benchmark systems from WISE+2MASS

We have used the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer to look for ultracool dwarfs that are part of multiple systems containing main-sequence stars. We cross-matched L dwarf candidates from the surveys with Hipparcos and Gliese stars, finding two new systems. The first system, G255-34AB, is an L2 dwarf companion to a K8 star, at a distance of 36 pc. We estimate its bolometric luminosity as log L/L-circle dot = -3.78 +/- 0.045 and T-eff = 2080 +/- 260 K. The second system, GJ499ABC, is a triple, with an L5 dwarf as a companion to a binary with an M4 and K5 star. These two new systems bring the number of L dwarf plus main-sequence star multiple systems to 24, which we discuss. We consider the binary fraction for L dwarfs and main-sequence stars, and further assess possible unresolved multiplicity within the full companion sample. This analysis shows that some of the L dwarfs in this sample might actually be unresolved binaries themselves, since their M-J appears to be brighter than the expected for their spectral types.Peer reviewe

Discovery of a redshift 6.13 quasar in the UKIRT infrared deep sky survey

Original article can be found at: http://www.aanda.org/ Copyright The European Southern Observatory (ESO) DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200811161Optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectra are presented for ULAS J131911.29+095051.4 (hereafter ULAS J1319+0950), a new redshift z = 6.127 0.004 quasar discovered in the Third Data Release (DR3) of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). The source has = 19.10 0.03, corresponding to = -27.12, which is comparable to the absolute magnitudes of the z 6 quasars discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). ULAS J1319+0950 was, in fact, registered by SDSS as a faint source with = 20.13 0.12, just below the signal-to-noise ratio limit of the SDSS high-redshift quasar survey. The faint z-band magnitude is a consequence of the weak Ly /N V emission line, which has a rest-frame equivalent width of ~20Å and provides only a small boost to the z-band flux. Nevertheless, there is no evidence of a significant new population of high-redshift quasars with weak emission lines from this UKIDSS-based search. The Ly  optical depth to ULAS J1319+0950 is consistent with that measured towards similarly distant SDSS quasars, implying that results from optical- and NIR-selected quasars may be combined in studies of cosmological reionization. Also presented is a new NIR-spectrum of the previously discovered UKIDSS quasar ULAS J020332.38+001229.2, which reveals the object to be a broad absorption line quasar. The new spectrum shows that the emission line initially identified as Ly  is actually N V, leading to a revised redshift of z = 5.72, rather than z = 5.86 as previously estimatedPeer reviewe

The extremely red L dwarf ULAS J222711-004547-dominated by dust

We report the discovery of a peculiar L dwarf from the United Kingdom Infrared Deep Sky Survey Large Area Survey, ULAS J222711-004547. The very red infrared photometry (MKO J-K = 2.79 +/- 0.06, WISEW1-W2 = 0.65 +/- 0.05) of ULAS J222711-004547 makes it one of the reddest brown dwarfs discovered so far. We obtained a moderate resolution spectrum of this target using the XSHOOTER spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope, and we classify it as L7pec, confirming its very red nature. Comparison to theoretical models suggests that the object could be a low-gravity L dwarf with a solar or higher than solar metallicity. Nonetheless, the match of such fits to the spectral energy distribution is rather poor, and this and other less red peculiar L dwarfs pose new challenges for the modelling of ultracool atmospheres, especially to the understanding of the effects of condensates and their sensitivity to gravity and metallicity. We determined the proper motion of ULAS J222711-004547 using the data available in the literature, and we find that its kinematics do not suggest membership of any of the known young associations. We show that applying a simple de-reddening curve to its spectrum allows it to resemble the spectra of the L7 spectroscopic standards without any spectral features that distinguish it as a low-metallicity or low-gravity dwarf. Given the negligible interstellar reddening of the field containing our target, we conclude that the reddening of the spectrum is mostly due to an excess of dust in the photosphere of the target. De-reddening the spectrum using extinction curves for different dust species gives surprisingly good results and suggests a characteristic grain size of similar to 0.5 mu m. We show that by increasing the optical depth, the same extinction curves allow the spectrum of ULAS J222711-004547 to resemble the spectra of unusually blue L dwarfs and even slightly metal-poor L dwarfs. Grains of similar size also yield very good fits when de-reddening other unusually red L dwarfs in the L5-L7.5 range. These results suggest that the diversity in near-infrared colours and spectra seen in late L dwarfs could be due to differences in the optical thickness of the dust cloud deck.Peer reviewe

Parallaxes of Five L Dwarfs with a Robotic Telescope

We report the parallax and proper motion of five L dwarfs obtained with observations from the robotic Liverpool Telescope. Our derived proper motions are consistent with published values and have considerably smaller errors. Based on our spectral type versus absolute magnitude diagram, we do not find any evidence for binaries among our sampleor, at least no comparable mass binaries. Their space velocities locate them within the thin disk, and based on the model comparisons, they have solar-like abundances. For all five objects, we derived effective temperature, luminosity, radius, gravity, and mass from an evolutionary model (CBA00) and our measured parallax; moreover, we derived their effective temperature by integrating observed optical and near-infrared spectra and model spectra (BSH06 or BT-Dusty) at longer wavelengths to obtain bolometric flux using the classical Stefan-Boltzmann law. Generally, the three temperatures for one object derived using two different methods with three models are consistent, although at lower temperature (e.g., for L4) the differences among the three temperatures are slightly larger than those at higher temperature (e.g., for L1).Peer reviewe

Purple dwarfs : New L subdwarfs from UKIDSS and SDSS

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.The first L subdwarf was a discovered only ten years ago. Less than ten L subdwarfs been published in the literature to date. Metal-poor ultracool atmospheres has not been well understood. Halo mass function cross substellar limit has not been measured. We used UKIDSS and SDSS to search for L subdwarfs. We have confirmed some new L subdwarfs and are following up more candidates with ground based large telescopes. We discussed spectral features of L subdwarfs and halo brown dwarfs

A large spectroscopic sample of L and T dwarfs from UKIDSS LAS : peculiar objects, binaries, and space density

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The version of record [F. Marocco, et al, 'A large spectroscopic sample of L and T dwarfs from UKIDSS LAS: peculiar objects, binaries, and space density', MNRAS, Vol. 449)4): 3651-3692, April 2015] is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv530.We present the spectroscopic analysis of a large sample of late-M, L, and T dwarfs from UKIDSS. Using the YJHK photometry from ULAS and the red-optical photometry from SDSS we selected a sample of 262 brown dwarf candidates and we followed-up 196 of them using X-shooter on the VLT. The large wavelength coverage (0.30-2.48 $\mu$m) and moderate resolution (R~5000-9000) of X-shooter allowed us to identify peculiar objects including 22 blue L dwarfs, 2 blue T dwarfs, and 2 low gravity M dwarfs. Using a spectral indices-based technique we identified 27 unresolved binary candidates, for which we determined the spectral type of the potential components via spectral deconvolution. The spectra allowed us to measure the equivalent width of the prominent absorption features and to compare them to atmospheric models. Cross-correlating the spectra with a radial velocity standard, we measured the radial velocity for our targets, and we determined the distribution of the sample, which is centred at -1.7$\pm$1.2 km s$^{-1}$ with a dispersion of 31.5 km s$^{-1}$. Using our results we estimated the space density of field brown dwarfs and compared it with the results of numerical simulations. Depending on the binary fraction, we found that there are (0.85$\pm$0.55) x 10$^{-3}$ to (1.00$\pm$0.64) x 10$^{-3}$ objects per cubic parsec in the L4-L6.5 range, (0.73$\pm$0.47) x 10$^{-3}$ to (0.85$\pm$0.55) x 10$^{-3}$ objects per cubic parsec in the L7-T0.5 range, and (0.74$\pm$0.48) x 10$^{-3}$ to (0.88$\pm$0.56) x 10$^{-3}$ objects per cubic parsec in the T1-T4.5 range. There seem to be an excess of objects in the L/T transition with respect to the late T dwarfs, a discrepancy that could be explained assuming a higher binary fraction than expected for the L/T transition, or that objects in the high-mass end and low-mass end of this regime form in different environments, i.e. following different IMFs.Peer reviewe

A 1500 deg2 near infrared proper motion catalogue from the UKIDSS Large Area Survey

The United Kingdom Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS) began in 2005, with the start of the UKIDSS programme as a 7 year effort to survey roughly 4000 deg2 at high Galactic latitudes in Y, J, H and K bands. The survey also included a significant quantity of two epoch J band observations, with an epoch baseline greater than 2 years to calculate proper motions. We present a near-infrared proper motion catalogue for the 1500 deg2 of the two epoch LAS data, which includes 135 625 stellar sources and a further 88 324 with ambiguous morphological classifications, all with motions detected above the 5σ level. We developed a custom proper motion pipeline which we describe here. Our catalogue agrees well with the proper motion data supplied for a 300 deg2 subset in the current Wide Field Camera Science Archive (WSA) 10th data release (DR10) catalogue, and in various optical catalogues, but it benefits from a larger matching radius and hence a larger upper proper motion detection limit. We provide absolute proper motions, using LAS galaxies for the relative to absolute correction. By using local second-order polynomial transformations, as opposed to linear transformations in the WSA, we correct better for any local distortions in the focal plane, not including the radial distortion that is removed by the UKIDSS pipeline. We present the results of proper motion searches for new brown dwarfs and white dwarfs. We discuss 41 sources in the WSA DR10 overlap with our catalogue with proper motions >300 mas yr−1, several of which are new detections. We present 15 new candidate ultracool dwarf binary systems