Near-Infrared Imaging Survey of Faint Companions around Young Dwarfs in the Pleiades Cluster

TL;DR

This study used near-infrared imaging to search for faint companions around young dwarfs in the Pleiades, identifying several candidates but confirming most are not physically associated with the primaries.

Contribution

First near-infrared imaging survey of faint companions around Pleiades young dwarfs, providing insights into their multiplicity and companion properties.

Findings

Detected 10 faint point sources around 7 dwarfs

Identified a very red, low-mass candidate near V 1171 Tau

Proper motion analysis showed most candidates are not physically bound

Abstract

We conducted a near-infrared imaging survey of 11 young dwarfs in the Pleiades cluster using the Subaru Telescope and the near-infrared coronagraph imager. We found 10 faint point sources, with magnitudes as faint as 20 mag in the K-band, around 7 dwarfs. Comparison with Spitzer archive images revealed that a pair of the faint sources around V 1171 Tau are very red in the infrared wavelengths, indicative of very low-mass young stellar objects. However, the results of our follow-up proper motion measurements implied that the central star and the faint sources do not share common proper motions, suggesting that they are not physically associated.