The distribution of ejected brown dwarfs in clusters

Abstract

We examine the spatial distribution of brown dwarfs produced by the decay of small-N stellar systems as expected from the embryo ejection scenario. We model a cluster of several hundred stars grouped into 'cores' of a few stars/brown dwarfs. These cores decay, preferentially ejecting their lowest-mass members. Brown dwarfs are found to have a wider spatial distribution than stars, however once the effects of limited survey areas and unresolved binaries are taken into account it can be difficult to distinguish between clusters with many or no ejections. A large difference between the distributions probably indicates that ejections have occurred, however similar distributions sometimes arise even with ejections. Thus the spatial distribution of brown dwarfs is not necessarily a good discriminator between ejection and non-ejection scenarios.

4 pages, 2 figures. Includes an.sty file

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Theory of Star Formation
• The properties of brown dwarfs and low-mass hydrogen-burning stars formed by disc fragmentation
• Orphaned Protostars
• On the mass segregation of stars and brown dwarfs in Taurus
• The dynamical evolution of low-mass hydrogen-burning stars, brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects formed through disc fragmentation
• The spatial distribution of substellar objects in IC348 and the Orion Trapezium Cluster
• On the mass segregation of cores and stars
• Spatial differences between stars and brown dwarfs: a dynamical origin?