Emission lines in the atmosphere of the irradiated brown dwarf WD0137-349B
E. S. Longstaff, S. L. Casewell, G. A. Wynn, P. F. L. Maxted, Ch., Helling

TL;DR
This study observes emission lines from a brown dwarf in a close binary system, revealing metal emissions caused by irradiation and insights into heat redistribution and atmospheric composition.
Contribution
First detection of metal emission lines in a brown dwarf atmosphere due to irradiation, with modeling of system dynamics and atmospheric chemistry.
Findings
Metal emission lines confirmed in brown dwarf atmosphere
Significant day-night variation in emission line strength
Estimated mass ratio of the binary system is 0.135
Abstract
We present new optical and near-infrared spectra of WD0137-349; a close white dwarf - brown dwarf non-interacting binary system with a period of 114 minutes. We have confirmed the presence of H emission and discovered He, Na, Mg, Si, K, Ca, Ti, and Fe emission lines originating from the brown dwarf atmosphere. This is the first brown dwarf atmosphere to have been observed to exhibit metal emission lines as a direct result of intense irradiation. The equivalent widths of many of these lines show a significant difference between the day and night sides of the brown dwarf. This is likely an indication that efficient heat redistribution may not be happening on this object, in agreement with models of hot Jupiter atmospheres. The H line strength variation shows a strong phase dependency as does the width. We have simulated the Ca II emission lines using a model that…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
