Proper motions and parallaxes of very low-mass stars using DCT astrometry

Abstract

Very low-mass stars (VLMs) are the smallest, least luminous stars in our galaxy, but nonetheless form one of the dominant (baryonic) populations. Precise distances and kinematics of VLMs can provide constraints on the smallest extremes of star formation, as well as important boundary constraints on the star formation process in general. However, Gaia will only be ~70% complete at the faint magnitudes of these objects. We present preliminary results from a program to measure parallaxes and proper motions for a nearby sample of 85 VLMs using the Large Monolithic Imager at the 4.3m Discovery Channel Telescope. We present proper motions for the entire sample and preliminary parallaxes for a few sources. These measurements will complement Gaia observations and allow us to construct high quality luminosity and mass functions, which will help to distinguish between VLM formation scenarios.http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AAS...22912605SPublished versio