A Keck LGS AO Search for Brown Dwarf and Planetary Mass Companions to Upper Scorpius Brown Dwarfs

TL;DR

This study used Keck LGS AO to search for companions to young brown dwarfs in Upper Scorpius, discovering a new binary and constraining the binary fraction among substellar objects, revealing similarities and differences with field populations.

Contribution

First high-resolution adaptive optics survey of young brown dwarfs in Upper Scorpius, providing new binary detections and improved constraints on binary fractions in this population.

Findings

Discovered a 0.14" binary companion to a brown dwarf in Upper Scorpius.

Estimated binary fraction for low-mass brown dwarfs is similar to field T dwarfs.

Medium-separation binaries are more common in young populations than in the field.

Abstract

We searched for binary companions to 20 young brown dwarfs in the Upper Scorpius association (145 pc, 5 Myr, nearest OB association) with the the Laser Guide Star adaptive optics system and the facility infrared camera NIRC2 on the 10 m Keck II telescope. We discovered a 0.14" companion (20.9+-0.4 AU) to the <0.1 MSun object SCH J16091837-20073523. From spectral deconvolution of integrated-light near-IR spectroscopy of SCH1609 using the SpeX spectrograph (Rayner et al. 2003), we estimate primary and secondary spectral types of M6+-0.5 and M7+-1.0, corresponding to masses of 79+-17 MJup and 55+-25 MJup at an age of 5 Myr and masses of 84+-15 MJup and 60+-25 MJup at an age of 10 Myr. For our survey objects with spectral types later than M8, we find an upper limit on the binary fraction of <9% (1-sigma) at separations of 10 -- 500 AU. We combine the results of our survey with previous surveys of Upper Sco and similar young regions to set the strongest constraints to date on binary fraction for young substellar objects and very low mass stars. The binary fraction for low mass (<40 MJup) brown dwarfs in Upper Sco is similar to that for T dwarfs in the field; for higher mass brown dwarfs and very low mass stars, there is an excess of medium-separation (10-50 AU projected separation) young binaries with respect to the field. These medium separation binaries will likely survive to late ages.