Disks, accretion and outflows of brown dwarfs

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent observational advances in understanding brown dwarf disks, accretion, and outflows, highlighting how these properties compare to those of solar-mass stars to inform formation theories.

Contribution

It summarizes recent observational results on brown dwarf disks, accretion, and outflows, emphasizing their significance for low-mass object formation models.

Findings

Brown dwarf disk masses and geometries characterized using Herschel data.

Accretion properties derived from X-Shooter spectra.

New outflow detections in very low-mass brown dwarfs.

Abstract

Characterization of the properties of young brown dwarfs are important to constraining the formation of objects at the extreme low-mass end of the IMF. While young brown dwarfs share many properties with solar-mass T Tauri stars, differences may be used as tests of how the physics of accretion/outflow and disk chemistry/dissipation depend on the mass of the central object. This article summarizes the presentations and discussions during the splinter session on 'Disks, accretion and outflows of brown dwarfs' held at the CoolStars17 conference in Barcelona in June 2012. Recent results in the field of brown dwarf disks and outflows include the determination of brown dwarf disk masses and geometries based on Herschel far-IR photometry (70-160 um), accretion properties based on X-Shooter spectra, and new outflow detections in the very low-mass regime.