The TRENDS High-contrast Imaging Survey. VIII. Compendium of Benchmark Objects

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of 31 co-moving stellar and substellar companions around solar-type stars, providing valuable benchmark objects for testing and calibrating low-mass stellar and substellar models.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive adaptive optics survey identifying new benchmark objects with well-determined properties to test evolutionary and atmospheric models.

Findings

Discovered 31 co-moving companions with known parallax and metallicity.

Identified 11 strong candidate companions for further study.

Provided a catalog of benchmark objects for model calibration.

Abstract

The physical properties of faint stellar and substellar objects often rely on indirect, model-dependent estimates. For example, the masses of brown dwarfs are usually inferred using evolutionary models, which are age dependent and have yet to be properly calibrated. With the goal of identifying new benchmark objects to test low-mass stellar and substellar models, we have carried out a comprehensive adaptive optics survey as part of the TaRgetting bENchmark-objects with the Doppler Spectroscopy high-contrast imaging program. Using legacy radial velocity measurements from High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer at Keck, we have identified several dozen stars that show long-term Doppler accelerations. We present follow-up high-contrast observations from the campaign and report the discovery of 31 co-moving companions, as well as 11 strong candidate companions, to solar-type stars with well-determined parallax and metallicity values. Benchmark objects of this nature lend themselves to orbit determinations, dynamical mass estimates, and independent compositional assessment. This compendium of benchmark objects will serve as a convenient test group to substantiate theoretical evolutionary and atmospheric models near the hydrogen fusing limit.