Extending the Canada-France brown Dwarfs Survey to the near-infrared: first ultracool brown dwarfs from CFBDSIR

TL;DR

The paper reports the first near-infrared results of the CFBDSIR survey, discovering ultracool brown dwarfs including some of the coolest known, to study their atmospheres and mass function.

Contribution

It extends the optical CFBDS survey into the near-infrared, identifying and confirming ultracool brown dwarfs, including the coolest known, and provides a larger sample for atmospheric and statistical analysis.

Findings

Identified 55 T-dwarf candidates in 66 sq. degrees.

Confirmed 6 T-dwarfs, including 3 later-than-T8 candidates.

Spectroscopy of CFBDSIR1458+1013 suggests it is one of the coolest brown dwarfs (550-600K).

Abstract

We present the first results of the ongoing Canada-France Brown Dwarfs Survey-InfraRed, hereafter CFBDSIR, a Near InfraRed extension to the optical wide-field survey CFBDS. Our final objectives are to constrain ultracool atmosphere physics by finding a statistically significant sample of objects cooler than 650K and to explore the ultracool brown dwarf mass function building on a well defined sample of such objects. Candidates are identified in CFHT/WIRCam J and CFHT/MegaCam z' images using optimised psf-fitting, and we follow them up with pointed near infrared imaging with SOFI at NTT. We finally obtain low resolution spectroscopy of the coolest candidates to characterise their atmospheric physics. We have so far analysed and followed up all candidates on the first 66 square degrees of the 335 square degrees survey. We identified 55 T-dwarfs candidates with z'-J > 3:5 and have confirmed six of them as T-dwarfs, including 3 that are strong later-than-T8 candidates, based on their far-red and NIR colours. We also present here the NIR spectra of one of these ultracool dwarfs, CFBDSIR1458+1013 which confirms it as one of the coolest brown dwarf known, possibly in the 550-600K temperature range. From the completed survey we expect to discover 10 to 15 dwarfs later than T8, more than doubling the known number of such objects. This will enable detailed studies of their extreme atmospheric properties and provide a stronger statistical base for studies of their luminosity function.