Contents of: VI/111/./abstract/CTELESCO_BROWNDWF.abs

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SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACT
No brown dwarfs have been detected yet with certainty.  The definitive
detection of even one brown dwarf will have a major impact on our ideas about
the evolution of stars.  We propose to use ISOCAM to search for brown-dwarf
companions to the nearest main-sequence stars.  We will image the fields
centered on these stars in two passbands in the 5-15 um spectral region which,
because of the high thermal background, cannot be observed from the ground
with sensitivities even close to those of which CAM is capable.  These
observations are aimed at the detection of brown dwarfs which are as cool as
several hundred Kelvins, which is much cooler than brown dwarf candidates
detectable from the ground in the low-thermal-background 1-3 um spectral
region.  We also propose a variety of observations with CAM and PHOT of brown-
dwarf candidates observed previously from the ground.

OBSERVATION SUMMARY
We propose to use ISOCAM to search for brown dwarfs that are companions to
known late-type main-sequence stars located within 10 pcs of the Sun.  The 3
arcsec pixel field-of-view will be used to permit resolution of brown-dwarf
companions as close as 15 AU to the star and to provide sufficiently large
spatial coverage (1.5 arcmin) that even widely separated companions will fall
within the field subtended be CAM.  We will survey 43 M-dwarf stars, each with
two CAM passbands for 64 seconds in each band.  The microscanning AOT will be
used for all observations.  At 10 pcs, a 500 K brown dwarf is expected to have
and 8 um flux density of about 0.4 mJy. The resultant signal-to-noise ratios
in the two selected passbands (LW2 and LW10) are then expected to be in the
range 4-9, which should be the worse case. We will also observe with ISOCAM
and ISOPHOT a sample of eight brown-dwarf candidates discovered prior to the
ISO mission.

** Please note that correct proper motions are not yet given for all objects
   The proper motion information will be completed a.s.a.p **