TY - JOUR
T1 - The dynamical evolution of low-mass hydrogen-burning stars, brown dwarfs, and planetary-mass objects formed through disk fragmentation
AU - Li, Yun
AU - Kouwenhoven, M. B.N.
AU - Stamatellos, D.
AU - Goodwin, S. P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/6/1
Y1 - 2015/6/1
N2 - Theory and simulations suggest that it is possible to form low-mass hydrogen-burning stars, brown dwarfs (BDs), and planetary-mass objects (PMOs) via disk fragmentation. As disk fragmentation results in the formation of several bodies at comparable distances to the host star, their orbits are generally unstable. Here, we study the dynamical evolution of these objects. We set up the initial conditions based on the outcomes of the smoothed-particle hydrodynamics simulations of Stamatellos & Whitworth, and for comparison we also study the evolution of systems resulting from lower-mass fragmenting disks. We refer to these two sets of simulations as set 1 and set 2, respectively. At 10 Myr, approximately half of the host stars have one companion left, and approximately 22% (set 1) to 9.8% (set 2) of the host stars are single. Systems with multiple secondaries in relatively stable configurations are common (about 30% and 44%, respectively). The majority of the companions are ejected within 1 Myr with velocities mostly below 5 km s-1, with some runaway escapers with velocities over 30 km s-1. Roughly 6% (set 1) and 2% (set 2) of the companions pair up into very low-mass binary systems, resulting in respective binary fractions of 3.2% and 1.2%. The majority of these pairs escape as very low-mass binaries, while others remain bound to the host star in hierarchical configurations (often with retrograde inner orbits). Physical collisions with the host star (0.43 and 0.18 events per host star for set 1 and set 2, respectively) and between companions (0.08 and 0.04 events per host star for set 1 and set 2, respectively) are relatively common and their frequency increases with increasing disk mass. Our study predicts observable properties of very low-mass binaries, low-mass hierarchical systems, the BD desert, and free-floating BDs and PMOs in and near young stellar groupings, which can be used to distinguish between different formation scenarios of very low-mass stars, BDs, and PMOs.
AB - Theory and simulations suggest that it is possible to form low-mass hydrogen-burning stars, brown dwarfs (BDs), and planetary-mass objects (PMOs) via disk fragmentation. As disk fragmentation results in the formation of several bodies at comparable distances to the host star, their orbits are generally unstable. Here, we study the dynamical evolution of these objects. We set up the initial conditions based on the outcomes of the smoothed-particle hydrodynamics simulations of Stamatellos & Whitworth, and for comparison we also study the evolution of systems resulting from lower-mass fragmenting disks. We refer to these two sets of simulations as set 1 and set 2, respectively. At 10 Myr, approximately half of the host stars have one companion left, and approximately 22% (set 1) to 9.8% (set 2) of the host stars are single. Systems with multiple secondaries in relatively stable configurations are common (about 30% and 44%, respectively). The majority of the companions are ejected within 1 Myr with velocities mostly below 5 km s-1, with some runaway escapers with velocities over 30 km s-1. Roughly 6% (set 1) and 2% (set 2) of the companions pair up into very low-mass binary systems, resulting in respective binary fractions of 3.2% and 1.2%. The majority of these pairs escape as very low-mass binaries, while others remain bound to the host star in hierarchical configurations (often with retrograde inner orbits). Physical collisions with the host star (0.43 and 0.18 events per host star for set 1 and set 2, respectively) and between companions (0.08 and 0.04 events per host star for set 1 and set 2, respectively) are relatively common and their frequency increases with increasing disk mass. Our study predicts observable properties of very low-mass binaries, low-mass hierarchical systems, the BD desert, and free-floating BDs and PMOs in and near young stellar groupings, which can be used to distinguish between different formation scenarios of very low-mass stars, BDs, and PMOs.
KW - brown dwarfs
KW - planetary systems
KW - stars: formation
KW - stars: kinematics and dynamics
KW - stars: low-mass
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930631644&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/805/2/116
DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/805/2/116
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84930631644
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 805
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 116
ER -