Bridging the Gap Between Stars and Planets: The Formation and Early Evolution of Brown Dwarfs

This White Paper, submitted to the National Academy of Sciences' Astro2010 Decadal Review Committee, focuses on 2 central themes in the study of young brown dwarfs -- their formation mechanism and disk characteristics -- which are of direct relevance to fundamental questions of stellar and planetary origins and properties.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Astro2010 Science White Paper (v2 has 2 references corrected/updated, and 3 repeated references in the v1 reference list removed