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A Search for Lithium in Brown Dwarf Candidates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Rafael Rebolo
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200, La Laguna, Spain
Eduardo L. Martin
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200, La Laguna, Spain
Antonio Magazzu
Affiliation:
Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, I-95125 Catania, Italy

Abstract

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We are conducting a search for lithium in very low mass objects with the aim of discriminating between stellar and substellar objects. Lithium is expected to be preserved in brown dwarfs with M/M ≤0.06, while it is known to be efficiently destroyed in low mass stars. In this paper we present high resolution observations in the region of the λ 6708 Li I resonance line of 5 very low mass dwarfs. In none of them lithium is detected, implying a Li destruction in their atmospheres of about four orders of magnitude. Our results suggest that these objects are probably very low mass stars rather than brown dwarfs.

Type
II. Atmospheres, a window to the interior
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1993

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