The Sonora Substellar Atmosphere Models. III. Diamondback: Atmospheric Properties, Spectra, and Evolution for Warm Cloudy Substellar Objects

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive grid of atmospheric and evolutionary models for substellar objects, accounting for refractory clouds and metallicity effects, and compares the models with observed brown dwarf data.

Contribution

It presents new cloud-inclusive models covering a wide temperature and gravity range, incorporating metallicity effects and providing open access to spectra and evolution data.

Findings

Refractory clouds and metallicity significantly influence substellar evolution.

Models show broad agreement with observed brown dwarf photometry.

Cloud and metallicity effects can alter temperature estimates by up to 200 K.

Abstract

We present a new grid of cloudy atmosphere and evolution models for substellar objects. These models include the effect of refractory cloud species, including silicate clouds, on the spectra and evolution. We include effective temperatures from 900 to 2400 K and surface gravities from log g=3.5-5.5, appropriate for a broad range of objects with masses between 1 and 84 Jupiter masses. Model pressure-temperature structures are calculated assuming radiative-convective and chemical equilibrium. We consider the effect of both clouds and metallicity on the atmospheric structure, resulting spectra, and thermal evolution of substellar worlds. We parameterize clouds using the Ackerman & Marley (2001) cloud model, including cloud parameter fsed values from 1-8; we include three metallicities (-0.5, 0.0, and +0.5). Refractory clouds and metallicity both alter the evolution of substellar objects, changing the inferred temperature at a given age by up to 100-200 K. We compare to the observed photometry of brown dwarfs, finding broad agreement with the measured photometry. We publish the spectra, evolution, and other data products online with open access.