The formation of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars by disc fragmentation

Stamatelos, Dimitrios and Whitworth, Anthony Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1178-5486 2009. The formation of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars by disc fragmentation. Presented at: Cool stars, stellar systems and the sun, St. Andrews, UK, 21–25 July 2008. Published in: Stempels, E. ed. Proceedings of the 15th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and the Sun, St Andrews, UK, 21-25 July 2008. AIP Conference Proceedings , vol.1094 Melville, USA: American Institute of Physics, pp. 557-560. 10.1063/1.3099172

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Abstract

We suggest that a high proportion of brown dwarfs are formed by gravitational fragmentation of massive extended discs around Sun‐like stars. We argue that such discs should arise frequently, but should be observed infrequently, precisely because they fragment rapidly. By performing an ensemble of radiation‐hydrodynamic simulations, we show that such discs typically fragment within a few thousand years to produce mainly brown dwarfs (including planetary‐mass brown dwarfs) and low‐mass hydrogen‐burning stars. Subsequently most of the brown dwarfs are ejected by mutual interactions. We analyse the properties of these objects that form by disc fragmentation, and compare them with observations.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Publisher:	American Institute of Physics
ISBN:	9780735406278
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2022 09:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/22113

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