Paper: astro-ph/0510153
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 21:44:22 GMT (263kb)

Title: Searching for proto-brown dwarfs: Extending near IR spectroscopy of
protostars below the hydrogen burning limit

Authors: Kevin R. Covey, Thomas P. Greene, Greg W. Doppmann, Charles J.
Lada, Bruce A. Wilking

Categories: astro-ph

Comments: 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Astronomical Notes for the
special issue containing the proceedings of the "Ultra low-mass star
formation and evolution" workshop
\\
Recent observations of nearby star forming regions have offered evidence that
young brown dwarfs undergo a period of mass accretion analogous to the T Tauri
phase observed in young stars. Brown dwarf analogs to stellar protostars,
however, have yet to be definitively observed. These young, accreting objects
would shed light on the nature of the dominant brown dwarf formation process,
as well as provide ideal laboratories to investigate the dependence of the
accretion mechanism on protostellar mass. Recent near infrared surveys have
identified candidate proto-brown dwarfs and characterized low mass protostars
in nearby star forming regions. These techniques allow near infrared spectra to
diagnose the effective temperature, accretion luminosity, magnetic field
strength and rotation velocity of young low mass stars across the
stellar/substellar boundary. The lowest mass proto-brown dwarfs (M < 40 M_Jup),
however, will prove challenging to observe given current near IR observational
capabilities.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0510153 , 263kb)