Very Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs in Upper Scorpius using Gaia DR1: Mass Function, Disks and Kinematics

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia DR1 data to identify and analyze very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in Upper Scorpius, revealing their kinematics, disk fractions, and mass function, with implications for star formation and dynamical evolution.

Contribution

First comprehensive Gaia-based analysis of VLMOs in Upper Scorpius, providing new mass estimates, disk fractions, and insights into their kinematics and formation history.

Findings

Mass function consistent with Kroupa IMF.

Higher disk fraction in low-mass brown dwarfs.

Proper motion scatter dominated by regional kinematics.

Abstract

Our understanding of the brown dwarf population in star forming regions is dependent on knowing distances and proper motions, and therefore will be improved through the Gaia space mission. In this paper, we select new samples of very low mass objects (VLMOs) in Upper Scorpius using UKIDSS colors and optimised proper motions calculated using Gaia DR1. The scatter in proper motions from VLMOs in Upper Scorpius is now (for the first time) dominated by the kinematic spread of the region itself, not by the positional uncertainties. With age and mass estimates updated using Gaia parallaxes for early type stars in the same region, we determine masses for all VLMOs. Our final most complete sample includes 453 VLMOs of which $\sim$125 are expected to be brown dwarfs. The cleanest sample is comprised of 131 VLMOs, with $\sim$105 brown dwarfs. We also compile a joint sample from the literature which includes 415 VLMOs, out of which 152 are likely brown dwarfs. The disc fraction among low-mass brown dwarfs ($M<0.05 M_{\odot}$) is substantially higher than in more massive objects, indicating that discs around low-mass brown dwarfs survive longer than in low-mass stars overall. The mass function for $0.01<M<0.1$ $M_{\odot}$ is consistent with the Kroupa IMF. We investigate the possibility that some 'proper motion outliers' have undergone a dynamical ejection early in their evolution. Our analysis shows that the color-magnitude cuts used when selecting samples introduce strong bias into the population statistics due to varying level of contamination and completeness.