Search for brown-dwarf companions of stars

Using both radial velocimetry (CORALIE and HARPS) and astrometry (HIPPARCOS), Sahlmann et al. attempt to provide limits to the mass of 33 potential brown dwarfs companions, for which only the m*sini value was known. Eight objects can thus be securely confined to the stellar domain, two of which are genuine brown dwarfs. The stellar or substellar nature of the 23 remaining objects cannot be ascertained. Altogether, this shows that a significant fraction of the potential brown dwarf companions discovered by radial velocimetry on the basis of their Msini are in fact M dwarf companions with low inclination of the orbit. On the basis of this work, brown dwarfs may be found as companions to solartype stars less than 0.6% of the time.