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A brown dwarf desert for intermediate mass stars in Scorpius OB2?
We present JHKS observations of 22 intermediate-mass stars inthe Scorpius-Centaurus OB association, obtained with the NAOS/CONICAsystem at the ESO Very Large Telescope. This survey was performed todetermine the status of (sub)stellar candidate companions of Sco OB2member stars of spectral type A and late-B. The distinction betweencompanions and background stars is made on the basis of a comparison toisochrones and additional statistical arguments. We are sensitive tocompanions with an angular separation of 0.1''-11'' (13-1430 AU) and thedetection limit is K_S=17 mag. We detect 62 stellar components of which18 turn out to be physical companions, 11 candidate companions, and 33background stars. Three of the 18 confirmed companions were previouslyundocumented as such. The companion masses are in the range 0.03{M}_ȯ ≤ M ≤ 1.19 {M}_ȯ, corresponding to mass ratios0.06 ≤ q ≤ 0.55. We include in our sample a subset of 9 targetswith multi-color ADONIS observations from Kouwenhoven et al. (2005,A&A, 430, 137). In the ADONIS survey secondaries with KS< 12 mag were classified as companions; those with KS >12 mag as background stars. The multi-color analysis in this paperdemonstrates that the simple K_S=12 mag criterion correctly classifiesthe secondaries in 80% of the cases. We reanalyse the total sample(i.e. NAOS/CONICA and ADONIS) and conclude that of the 176 secondaries,25 are physical companions, 55 are candidate companions, and 96 arebackground stars. Although we are sensitive (and complete) to browndwarf companions as faint as K_S=14 mag in the semi-major axis range130-520 AU, we detect only one, corresponding to a brown dwarf companionfraction of 0.5 ± 0.5% (M ⪆ 30 {M_J}). However, the number ofbrown dwarfs is consistent with an extrapolation of the (stellar)companion mass distribution into the brown dwarf regime. This indicatesthat the physical mechanism for the formation of brown dwarf companionsaround intermediate mass stars is similar to that of stellar companions,and that the embryo ejection mechanism does not need to be invoked inorder to explain the small number of brown dwarf companions amongintermediate mass stars in the Sco OB2 association.Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory,Chile. Program 073.D-0354(A). Appendix A is only available in electronicform at http://www.aanda.org
| Completeness of USNO-B for High Proper Motion Stars
I test the completeness of USNO-B detections of high proper motion(μ>180 mas yr-1) stars and the accuracy of itsmeasurements by comparing them to the revised New Luyten Two-Tenthscatalog of Salim & Gould. For 14.5~20 mas yr-1) may actuallyhave still larger errors than tabulated.
| Improved Astrometry and Photometry for the Luyten Catalog. II. Faint Stars and the Revised Catalog
We complete construction of a catalog containing improved astrometry andnew optical/infrared photometry for the vast majority of NLTT starslying in the overlap of regions covered by POSS I and by the secondincremental Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) release, approximately 44%of the sky. The epoch 2000 positions are typically accurate to 130 mas,the proper motions to 5.5 mas yr-1, and the V-J colors to0.25 mag. Relative proper motions of binary components are measured to 3mas yr-1. The false-identification rate is ~1% for11<~V<~18 and substantially less at brighter magnitudes. Theseimprovements permit the construction of a reduced proper-motion diagramthat, for the first time, allows one to classify NLTT stars intomain-sequence (MS) stars, subdwarfs (SDs), and white dwarfs (WDs). We inturn use this diagram to analyze the properties of both our catalog andthe NLTT catalog on which it is based. In sharp contrast to popularbelief, we find that NLTT incompleteness in the plane is almostcompletely concentrated in MS stars, and that SDs and WDs are detectedalmost uniformly over the sky δ>-33deg. Our catalogwill therefore provide a powerful tool to probe these populationsstatistically, as well as to reliably identify individual SDs and WDs.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Scorpius |
| Right ascension: | 16h07m15.27s |
| Declination: | -14°23'35.2" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 10.652 |
| Proper motion RA: | -64.5 |
| Proper motion Dec: | -130.1 |
| B-T magnitude: | 12.156 |
| V-T magnitude: | 10.777 |
Catalogs and designations:
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