Exploring Brown Dwarf Origins
Ray Jayawardhana (University of Michigan )
Brown dwarfs, which straddle the mass range between stars
and planets, appear to be common both in the field and in
star-forming regions. Their ubiquity makes the question of
their origin an important one, both for our understanding
of brown dwarfs themselves as well as for theories on the
formation of stars and planets. I will discuss recent
results that provide valuable clues to the formation and
early evolution of sub-stellar objects. In particular,
observations of disk frequency and characteristics and
measurements of accretion signatures confirm that young
brown dwarfs undergo a T Tauri-like phase similar to that
of low-mass stars.
http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~rayjay