Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Another One Busts The Dust, Keiko Hiranaka

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Brown dwarfs are substellar objects with core temperatures insufficient for sustained hydrogen fusion. Their physical properties such as mass, temperature, and radius are similar to those of gas giant planets, so studying brown dwarfs may also benefit exoplanet studies.

There is a population of 'red' L dwarfs, which have redder J - K colors in the near-infrared than normal objects. Red L dwarfs include young, low-gravity objects, which are systematically red, and red field-gravity objects. The observed reddening in L dwarfs is not well explained by current atmosphere models.

We present an analysis of red L dwarfs using our model …