Deuterium Burning in Substellar Objects

Abstract

We consider the depletion of primordial deuterium in the interior of substellar objects as a function of mass, age, and absolute magnitude in several photometric passbands. We characterize potential spectroscopic signatures of deuterium in the lines of deuterated water HDO. These results will serve as a useful, independent diagnostic to characterize the mass and/or the age of young substellar objects and to provide an independent age determination of very young clusters. These results can serve to identify objects at the deuterium-burning limit and to confront the theoretical prediction that D burning is a necessary condition to form starlike objects.