Five new very low mass binaries

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 460, Number 2, December III 2006


Page(s)		L19 - L22
Section		Letters
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20066120

A&A 460, L19-L22 (2006)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20066120

Letter

Five new very low mass binaries

G. Montagnier^{1, 2}, D. Ségransan², J.-L. Beuzit¹, T. Forveille^{3, 1}, P. Delorme¹, X. Delfosse¹, C. Perrier¹, S. Udry², M. Mayor², G. Chauvin⁴, A.-M. Lagrange¹, D. Mouillet⁵, T. Fusco⁶, P. Gigan⁷, and E. Stadler¹

¹ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex, France
e-mail: Guillaume.Montagnier@obs.ujf-grenoble.fr
² Observatoire de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
³ Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation, 65-1238 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743, Hawaii, USA
⁴ European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile
⁵ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse et Tarbes, BP 826, 65008 Tarbes Cedex, France
⁶ ONERA-DOTA, BP 72, 29 avenue de la Division Leclerc, 92322 Châtillon Cedex, France
⁷ Laboratoire d'Études Spatiales et d'Instrumentation Astrophysique, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France

(Received 26 July 2006 / Accepted 12 October 2006)

Abstract
We report the discovery of companions to 5 nearby late M dwarfs (>M5), LHS1901, LHS4009, LHS6167, LP869-26 and WT460, and we confirm that the recently discovered mid-T brown dwarf companion to SCR1845-6357 is physically bound to that star. These discoveries result from our adaptive optics survey of all M dwarfs within 12 pc. The new companions have spectral types M5 to L1, and orbital separations between 1 and 10 AU. They add significantly to the number of late M dwarfs binaries in the immediate solar neighbourhood, and will improve the multiplicity statistics of late M dwarfs. The expected periods range from 3 to 130 years. Several pairs thus have good potential for accurate mass determination in this poorly sampled mass range.

Key words: binaries: visual -- stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs -- techniques: high angular resolution -- instrumentation: adaptive optics

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