We report on near-infrared J- and H-band linear polarimetric photometry of
eight ultracool dwarfs (two late-M, five L0-L7.5, and one T2.5) with known
evidence for photometric variability due to dust clouds, anomalous red infrared
colors, or low-gravity atmospheres. The polarimetric data were acquired with
the LIRIS instrument on the William Herschel Telescope. We also provide
mid-infrared photometry in the interval 3.4-24 micron for some targets obtained
with Spitzer and WISE, which has allowed us to confirm the peculiar red colors
of five sources in the sample. We can impose modest upper limits of 0.9% and
1.8% on the linear polarization degree for seven targets with a confidence of
99%. Only one source, 2MAS, J02411151-0326587 (L0), appears to be strongly
polarized (P ~ 3%) in the J-band with a significance level of P/sigma_P ~ 10.
The likely origin of its linearly polarized light and rather red infrared
colors may reside in a surrounding disk with an asymmetric distribution of
grains. Given its proximity (66 +/- 8 pc), this object becomes an excellent
target for the direct detection of the disk.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
