The Sonora Brown Dwarf Atmosphere and Evolution Models I. Model Description and Application to Cloudless Atmospheres in Rainout Chemical Equilibrium

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new set of substellar atmosphere and evolution models for brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets, covering a wide range of temperatures, gravities, and compositions, with improvements in opacities and chemistry.

Contribution

It provides an expanded and updated grid of cloudless, chemical equilibrium atmosphere models and evolution tracks for substellar objects, including cooler temperatures and varied C/O ratios.

Findings

Models match observed spectra and photometry.

Expanded parameter space for temperature and composition.

Improved opacities and atmospheric chemistry.

Abstract

We present a new generation of substellar atmosphere and evolution models, appropriate for application to studies of L, T, and Y-type brown dwarfs and self-luminous extrasolar planets. The atmosphere models describe the expected temperature-pressure profiles and emergent spectra of atmospheres in radiative-convective equilibrium with effective temperatures and gravities within the ranges $200\le T_{\rm eff}\le2400\,\rm K$ and $2.5\le \log g \le 5.5$. These ranges encompass masses from about 0.5 to 85 Jupiter masses for a set of metallicities ($[{\rm M/H}] = -0.5$ to $+0.5$), C/O ratios (from 0.5 to 1.5 times that of solar), and ages. The evolution tables describe the cooling of these substellar objects through time. These models expand the diversity of model atmospheres currently available, notably to cooler effective temperatures and greater ranges in C/O. Notable improvements from past such models include updated opacities and atmospheric chemistry. Here we describe our modeling approach and present our initial tranche of models for cloudless, chemical equilibrium atmospheres. We compare the modeled spectra, photometry, and evolution to various datasets.