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

Abstract

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.

To appear in the proceedings of the conference "New technologies for probing the diversity of brown dwarfs and exoplanets", Shanghai 2009