Photometric brown-dwarf classification

II. A homogeneous sample of 1361 L and T dwarfs brighter than J = 17.5 with accurate spectral types^⋆

¹ Astrophysics Group, Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
e-mail: s.j.warren@imperial.ac.uk
² Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Received: 14 September 2015
Accepted: 16 February 2016

Abstract

We present a homogeneous sample of 1361 L and T dwarfs brighter than J = 17.5 (of which 998 are new), from an effective area of 3070 deg², classified by the photo-type method to an accuracy of one spectral sub-type using izYJHKW1W2 photometry from SDSS+UKIDSS+WISE. Other than a small bias in the early L types, the sample is shown to be effectively complete to the magnitude limit, for all spectral types L0 to T8. The nature of the bias is an incompleteness estimated at 3% because peculiar blue L dwarfs of type L4 and earlier are classified late M. There is a corresponding overcompleteness because peculiar red (likely young) late M dwarfs are classified early L. Contamination of the sample is confirmed to be small: so far spectroscopy has been obtained for 19 sources in the catalogue and all are confirmed to be ultracool dwarfs. We provide coordinates and izYJHKW1W2 photometry of all sources. We identify an apparent discontinuity, Δm ~ 0.4 mag, in the Y − K colour between spectral types L7 and L8. We present near-infrared spectra of nine sources identified by photo-type as peculiar, including a new low-gravity source ULAS J005505.68+013436.0, with spectroscopic classification L2γ. We provide revised izYJHKW1W2 template colours for late M dwarfs, types M7 to M9.