Meeting the Cool Neighbors. IX. The Luminosity Function of M7-L8 Ultracool Dwarfs in the Field

By Kelle Cruz, I. Neill Reid, J. D. Kirkpatrick, A. Burgasser, J. Liebert, A. Solomon, S. Schmidt, P. R. Allen, S. Hawley, K. Covey. 2006

246 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present a 20 pc, volume-limited sample of M7-L8 dwarfs created through spectroscopic follow-up of sources selected from the Two Micron All Sky Survey Second Incremental Release Point Source Catalog. In this paper we present optical spectroscopy of 198 candidate nearby ultracool dwarfs, including 12 late-M and L dwarfs likely to be within 20 pc of the Sun and 94 more distant late-type dwarfs. We have also identified five ultracool dwarfs with spectral signatures of low gravity. Combining these data with previous results, we define a sample of 99 ultracool dwarfs in 91 systems within 20 pc. These are used to estimate the J- and K-band luminosity functions for dwarfs with optical spectral types between M7 and L8 (10.5 < MJ < 15, 9.5 < M < 13). We find a space density of 4.9 × 10-3 pc-3 for late-M dwarfs (M7-M9.5) and a lower limit of 3.8 × 10-3 pc-3 for L dwarfs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Education, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4af01363a8a29d8078818a104b087c1cbc2de26f

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Michael C. Liu
2. K. Luhman
3. T. Dupuy
4. A. Burgasser
5. Jon Fortney
6. J. D. Kirkpatrick
7. Kelle Cruz
8. M. Marley

In Education

1. A. Burgasser
2. J. D. Kirkpatrick
3. A. Mann
4. Michael C. Liu
5. Kelle Cruz
6. E. Gaidos
7. Timothy Morton
8. K. Luhman

In Instrumentation

1. Michael C. Liu
2. A. Burgasser
3. T. Dupuy
4. K. Luhman
5. J. D. Kirkpatrick
6. Kelle Cruz
7. Jon Fortney
8. K. Allers

Citations in the corpus

• DISCOVERY OF A BINARY BROWN DWARF AT 2 pc FROM THE SUN (2013, background): “Most brown dwarfs, on the other hand, have been found through their distinctive colors (e.g., Burgasser et al. 2004; Cruz et al. 2007; Burningham et al. 2010; Albert et al. 2011; Kirkpatrick et al. 2011) because wide-field infrared (IR) surveys initially offered limited data on proper motions.”
• COLORS AND KINEMATICS OF L DWARFS FROM THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY (2010, background): “The spectroscopic sample is heavily skewed towards early-L dwarfs (compared to the L dwarf luminosity function; Cruz et al. 2007) because they are both more numerous and intrinsically brighter than later-L dwarfs.”
• MEETING THE COOL NEIGHBORS. X. ULTRACOOL DWARFS FROM THE 2MASS ALL-SKY DATA RELEASE (2008, methodology): “As discussed in Cruz et al. (2007), the slope of the spectra from GN-2004BQ-10 are systematically too steep longward of 8700 Å.”
• FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS AND SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS OF YOUNG AND FIELD AGE OBJECTS WITH MASSES SPANNING THE STELLAR TO PLANETARY REGIME (2015, unknown): “…(4) Cruz et al. (2009), (5) Goldman et al. (1999), (6) Kirkpatrick et al. (2001a), (7) Cruz & Reid (2002), (8) Kirkpatrick et al. (1995), (9) Cruz et al. (2007), (10) Faherty et al. (2009), (11) Schneider et al. (1991), (12) Gizis et al. (2000), (13) Konopacky et al. (2010), (14)…”
• Global Climate and Atmospheric Composition of the Ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-103b from HST and Spitzer Phase Curve Observations (2018, methodology): “…Bardalez Gagliuffi et al. (2014) and the parallax reported in Dieterich et al. (2014), and for 0003-2822 we used 2MASS and WISE photometry along with the optical spectrum from Cruz et al. (2007) the near infrared spectrum from Cruz et al. (2018), and the parallax reported in Faherty et al. (2010).”
• The Stellar Population of the Chamaeleon I Star-forming Region (2007, background): “Similar objects have been identified toward the Taurus cloud complex (Luhman 2006; Slesnick et al. 2006) and in the solar neighborhood (Cruz et al. 2007).”
• Trumpeting M dwarfs with CONCH-SHELL: a catalogue of nearby cool host-stars for habitable exoplanets and life (2014, methodology): “We revisited this calculation using the transverse velocity distribution of Hipparcos stars within 100 pc (van Leeuwen 2007), the J-band luminosity function of Cruz et al. (2007) and considering stars with MJ > 5 (Lépine et al. 2013).”
• A VOLUME-LIMITED SAMPLE OF 63 M7–M9.5 DWARFS. II. ACTIVITY, MAGNETISM, AND THE FADE OF THE ROTATION-DOMINATED DYNAMO (2009, background): “The targets are taken from several catalogues and discoveries from the DENIS survey (Delfosse et al. 2001; Crifo et al. 2005; Phan-Bao & Bessel 2006; Phan-Bao et al. 2006) and the 2MASS survey (Cruz et al. 2007).”
• YOUNG L DWARFS IDENTIFIED IN THE FIELD: A PRELIMINARY LOW-GRAVITY, OPTICAL SPECTRAL SEQUENCE FROM L0 TO L5 (2008, methodology): “These peculiar M and L dwarfs were flagged for further analysis and noted as low gravity in their discovery papers (Cruz et al. 2003, 2007; Reid et al. 2008).”
• Discovery of Two Nearby Peculiar L Dwarfs from the 2MASS Proper-Motion Survey: Young or Metal-Rich? (2008, methodology): “…field dwarfs: 2MASSW J1146345+223053 (L3, hereafter 2MASS J1146+2230), 2MASSW J1155009+230706 (L4, hereafter 2MASS J1155+2307), 2MASSW J1507476−162738 (L5, hereafter 2MASS J1507−1627; Kirkpatrick et al. 1999), and 2MASS J21321145+1341584 (L6, hereafter 2MASS J2132+1341; Cruz et al. 2007).”
• The Formation and Early Evolution of Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs (2012, background): “The standards for this scheme consist of nearby field dwarfs that have been identified as young based on their gravity sensitive lines (Cruz, Kirkpatrick & Burgasser 2009; Cruz et al. 2007; Kirkpatrick et al. 2006, 2008).”
• THE HAWAII INFRARED PARALLAX PROGRAM. I. ULTRACOOL BINARIES AND THE L/T TRANSITION, (2012, methodology): “…et al. (2006); (25) Close et al. (2002); (26) Costa et al. (2005); (27) Costa et al. (2006); (28) Crifo et al. (2005); (29) Cruz et al. (2003); (30) Cruz et al. (2007); (31) Currie et al. (2011); (32) Cushing et al. (2011); (33) Dahn et al. (2002); (34) Dahn et al. (2008); (35) Deacon et al.…”
• Individual Dynamical Masses of Ultracool Dwarfs (2017, unknown): “0 ± 1.0; 73± 7MJup; log(Lbol/L ) = −4.29+0.04−0.05 dex), and 2MASS J2132+1341A (L4.”
• ERRATUM: “THE LUMINOSITY AND MASS FUNCTIONS OF LOW-MASS STARS IN THE GALACTIC DISK. II. THE FIELD” (2010, AJ, 139, 2679) (2010, methodology): “This limit is probably not realistic, as prior LF studies (e.g., Reid & Gizis 1997; Cruz et al. 2007) would have demonstrated similar behavior.”
• HST SPECTRAL MAPPING OF L/T TRANSITION BROWN DWARFS REVEALS CLOUD THICKNESS VARIATIONS (2013, background): “…et al. 2011; Marley et al. 2010 and progress has been made in spectroscopic modeling to separate or constrain the impact of cloud structure from other parameters (e.g. Cruz et al. 2007; Folkes et al. 2007; Looper et al. 2008; Burgasser et al. 2008; Radigan et al. 2008; Cushing et al. 2010).”
• THE BROWN DWARF KINEMATICS PROJECT I. PROPER MOTIONS AND TANGENTIAL VELOCITIES FOR A LARGE SAMPLE OF LATE-TYPE M, L, AND T DWARFS (2008, background): “…M, L and T dwarfs include 1) low surface-gravity, very low-mass objects (e.g. McGovern et al. 2004, Kirkpatrick et al. 2006, Allers et al. 2007, Cruz et al. 2007), 2) old, metal-poor ultracool subdwarfs (e.g. Burgasser et al. 2003a, Lépine et al. 2003, Gizis & Harvin 2006, Burgasser et al.…”
• THE HAWAII INFRARED PARALLAX PROGRAM. II. YOUNG ULTRACOOL FIELD DWARFS (2016, background): “2MASSI J1615425+495321 (L4γ/L3 vl-g): Cruz et al. (2007) first noted low gravity features in the optical spectrum of 2MASS J1615+4953.”