Brown dwarfs forming in discs: where to look for them?

A large fraction of the observed brown dwarfs may form by gravitational fragmentation of unstable discs. This model reproduces the brown dwarf desert, and provides an explanation the existence of planetary-mass objects and for the binary properties of low-mass objects. We have performed an ensemble of radiative hydrodynamic simulations and determined the statistical properties of the low-mass objects produced by gravitational fragmentation of discs. We suggest that there is a population of brown dwarfs loosely bound on wide orbits (100-5000 AU) around Sun-like stars that surveys of brown dwarf companions should target. Our simulations also indicate that planetary-mass companions to Sun-like stars are unlikely to form by disc fragmentation.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the conference "New technologies for probing the diversity of brown dwarfs and exoplanets", Shanghai 200

Can giant planets form by gravitational fragmentation of discs?

Gravitational fragmentation has been proposed as a mechanism for the formation of giant planets in close orbits around solar-type stars. However, it is debatable whether this mechanism can function in the inner regions (R<40 AU) of real discs. We use a newly developed method for treating the energy equation and the equation of state, which accounts for radiative transfer effects in SPH simulations of circumstellar discs. The different chemical and internal states of hydrogen and the properties of dust at different densities and temperatures (ice coated dust grains at low temperatures, ice melting, dust sublimation) are all taken into account by the new method.We present radiative hydrodynamic simulations of the inner regions of massive circumstellar discs and examine two cases: (i) a disc irradiated by a cool background radiation field (T_bgr=10K)and (ii) a disc heated by radiation from its central star (T_bgr~1/R). In neither case does the disc fragment: in the former because it cannot cool fast enough and in the latter because it is not gravitationally unstable. Our results (a) corroborate previous numerical results using different treatments for the hydrodynamics and the radiative transfer, and (b) confirm our own earlier analytic predictions. We conclude that disc fragmentation is unlikely to be able to produce giant planets around solar-type stars at radii <40 AU.Comment: Accepted by A&A, 10 pages, high-resolution available at http://www.astro.cf.ac.uk/pub/Dimitrios.Stamatellos/publications

The statistical Analysis of Star Clusters

We review a range of stastistical methods for analyzing the structures of star clusters, and derive a new measure ${\cal Q}$ which both quantifies, and distinguishes between, a (relatively smooth) large-scale radial density gradient and multi-scale (fractal) sub-clustering. Q is derived from the normalised correlation length and the normalised edge length of the minimal spanning tree for each cluster

The formation of brown dwarfs in discs: Physics, numerics, and observations

A large fraction of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars may form by gravitational fragmentation of relatively massive (a few 0.1 Msun), extended (a few hundred AU) discs around Sun-like stars. We present an ensemble of radiative hydrodynamic simulations that examine the conditions for disc fragmentation. We demonstrate that this model can explain the low-mass IMF, the brown dwarf desert, and the binary properties of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. Observing discs that are undergoing fragmentation is possible but very improbable, as the process of disc fragmentation is short lived (discs fragment within a few thousand years).Comment: 4 pages, for the proceedings of IAU Symposium 270: Computational Star Formation, Barcelona, 201

Brown dwarf formation by gravitational fragmentation of massive, extended protostellar discs

We suggest that low-mass hydrogen-burning stars like the Sun should sometimes form with massive extended discs; and we show, by means of radiation hydrodynamic simulations, that the outer parts of such discs (R>100 AU) are likely to fragment on a dynamical timescale (10^3 to $10^4 yr), forming low-mass companions: principally brown dwarfs (BDs), but also very low-mass hydrogen-burning stars and planetary-mass objects. A few of the BDs formed in this way remain attached to the primary star, orbiting at large radii. The majority are released into the field, by interactions amongst themselves; in so doing they acquire only a low velocity dispersion (<2 km/s), and therefore they usually retain small discs, capable of registering an infrared excess and sustaining accretion. Some BDs form close BD/BD binaries, and these binaries can survive ejection into the field. This BD formation mechanism appears to avoid some of the problems associated with the `embryo ejection' scenario, and to answer some of the questions not yet answered by the `turbulent fragmentation' scenario.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

Episodic accretion, radiative feedback, and their role in low-mass star formation

It is speculated that the accretion of material onto young protostars is episodic. We present a computational method to include the effects of episodic accretion in radiation hydrodynamic simulations of star formation. We find that during accretion events protostars are "switched on", heating and stabilising the discs around them. However, these events typically last only a few hundred years, whereas the intervals in between them may last for a few thousand years. During these intervals the protostars are effectively "switched off", allowing gravitational instabilities to develop in their discs and induce fragmentation. Thus, episodic accretion promotes disc frag- mentation, enabling the formation of low-mass stars, brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects. The frequency and the duration of episodic accretion events may be responsible for the low-mass end of the IMF, i.e. for more than 60% of all stars.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 9th Pacific Rim Conference of Stellar Astrophysics, Lijiang, China, 201

The formation of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars by disc fragmentation

We suggest that a high proportion of brown dwarfs are formed by gravitational fragmentation of massive, extended discs around Sun-like stars. We argue that such discs should arise frequently, but should be observed infrequently, precisely because they fragment rapidly. By performing an ensemble of radiation-hydrodynamic simulations, we show that such discs typically fragment within a few thousand years to produce mainly brown dwarfs (including planetary-mass brown dwarfs) and low-mass hydrogen-burning stars. Subsequently most of the brown dwarfs are ejected by mutual interactions. We analyse the properties of these objects that form by disc fragmentation, and compare them with observations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Cool Stars 15 conferenc

The intrinsic shapes of starless cores in Ophiuchus

Using observations of cores to infer their intrinsic properties requires the solution of several poorly constrained inverse problems. Here we address one of these problems, namely to deduce from the projected aspect ratios of the cores in Ophiuchus their intrinsic three-dimensional shapes. Four models are proposed, all based on the standard assumption that cores are randomly orientated ellipsoids, and on the further assumption that a core's shape is not correlated with its absolute size. The first and simplest model, M1, has a single free parameter, and assumes that the relative axes of a core are drawn randomly from a log-normal distribution with zero mean and standard deviation \sigma o. The second model, M2a, has two free parameters, and assumes that the log-normal distribution (with standard deviation \sigma o) has a finite mean, \mu o, defined so that \mu o<0 means elongated (prolate) cores are favoured, whereas \mu o>0 means flattened (oblate) cores are favoured. Details of the third model (M2b, two free parameters) and the fourth model (M4, four free parameters) are given in the text. Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling and Bayesian analysis are used to map out the posterior probability density functions of the model parameters, and the relative merits of the models are compared using Bayes factors. We show that M1 provides an acceptable fit to the Ophiuchus data with \sigma o ~ 0.57+/-0.06; and that, although the other models sometimes provide an improved fit, there is no strong justification for the introduction of their additional parameters.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted by MNRA