Free access article

Issue A&A Volume 379, Number 1, November III 2001 Page(s) L9 - L12 Section Letters DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20011337

A&A 379, L9-L12 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011337

UVES spectra of young brown dwarfs in Cha I: Radial and rotational velocities

V. Joergens¹ and E. Guenther<sup>2

1</sup>  Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
²  Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatorium, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany

(Received 3 September 2001 / Accepted 24 September 2001 )

Abstract
Based on high-resolution UVES spectra we found that the radial velocity (RV) dispersion of nine of twelve known young bona fide and candidate brown dwarfs in the Cha I dark cloud is 2.0 km s^-1, i.e. significantly smaller than the RV dispersion of T Tauri stars in Cha I (3.6 km s^-1) and only slightly larger than the dispersion of the surrounding molecular gas (1.2 km s^-1) (Mizuno et al. 1999). This result indicates that the majority of these brown dwarfs are not ejected with high velocity out of a dense region as proposed by some formation scenarios for brown dwarfs. The mean RV values are consistent with the objects being kinematic members of Cha I. The RV dispersion of the T Tauri stars confined to the Cha I region is based on a compilation of T Tauri stars with known RVs from the literature plus three T Tauri stars observed with UVES and unpublished RVs for nine T Tauri stars. Time-resolved spectroscopy revealed RV variations for five out of nine of the bona fide and candidate brown dwarfs in Cha I, which could be due to orbiting planets or surface features. Furthermore we derived rotational velocities and the Lithium 6708 Å equivalent width.

Key words: stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs -- stars: formation -- planetary systems: formation -- stars: individual: Cha H 1 to 12, B 34, CHXR 74, Sz 23

Offprint request: V. Joergens, viki@mpe.mpg.de

SIMBAD Objects

© ESO 2001

What is OpenURL?