A search for wide brown dwarf companions to stars within 10pc

TL;DR

This study conducted a deep imaging survey around stars within 10 parsecs to find wide brown dwarf companions, revealing a lower-than-expected companion fraction likely due to galactic interactions.

Contribution

First large-scale imaging survey targeting wide brown dwarf companions within 10 pc, providing new insights into their frequency and distribution.

Findings

Wide low-mass companion fraction is lower than expected.

Galactic disk interactions may remove wide companions around old stars.

Survey covers over 230 nearby stars with deep astrometric imaging.

Abstract

We present the first results of a large imaging survey to identify wide brown dwarf companions to stars within 10 pc. We have performed a deep (H-band limit ~ 19.0 mag), wide field (up to 16x16 arcmin) astrometric imaging campaign in two epochs around more than 230 nearby stars. Preliminary results show that the wide low-mass companion fraction is far lower than expected, indicating that interactions with the galactic disk may have removed the weakly bound wide companions around old stars.