J. Patience, R. R. King, R. J. De Rosa, A. Vigan, S. Witte, E. Rice, Ch. Helling, P. Hauschildt
With a uniform VLT SINFONI data set of nine targets, we have developed an
empirical grid of J,H,K spectra of the atmospheres of objects estimated to have
very low substellar masses of \sim5-20 MJup and young ages of \sim1-50 Myr.
Most of the targets are companions, objects which are especially valuable for
comparison with atmosphere and evolutionary models, as they present rare cases
in which the age is accurately known from the primary. Based on the sample
youth, all objects are expected to have low surface gravity, and this study
investigates the critical early phases of the evolution of substellar objects.
The spectra are compared with grids of five different theoretical atmosphere
models. This analysis represents the first systematic model comparison with
infrared spectra of young brown dwarfs. The fits to the full JHK spectra of
each object result in a range of best fit effective temperatures of +/-150-300K
whether or not the full model grid or a subset restricted to lower log(g)
values is used. This effective temperature range is significantly larger than
the uncertainty typically assigned when using a single model grid. Fits to a
single wavelength band can vary by up to 1000K using the different models.
Since the overall shape of these spectra is governed more by the temperature
than surface gravity, unconstrained model fits did not find matches with low
surface gravity or a trend in log(g) with age. This suggests that empirical
comparison with spectra of unambiguously young objects targets (such as these
SINFONI data) may be the most reliable method to search for indications of low
surface gravity and youth. For two targets, the SINFONI data are a second epoch
and the data show no variations in morphology over time. The analysis of two
other targets, AB Pic B and CT Cha B, suggests that these objects may have
lower temperatures, and consequently lower masses, than previously estimated.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.3921
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