It is estimated that ~60% of all stars (including brown dwarfs) have masses below 0:2M๏. Currently, there is no consensus on how these objects form. I will briefly review the four main theories for the formation of low-mass objects: turbulent fragmentation, ejection of protostellar embryos, disc fragmentation, and photo-erosion of prestellar cores. I will focus on the disc fragmentation theory and discuss how it addresses critical observational constraints, i.e. the low-mass initial mass function, the brown dwarf desert, and the binary statistics of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. I will examine whether observations may be used to distinguish between different formation mechanisms, and give a few examples of systems that strongly favour a specific formation scenario. Finally, I will argue that it is likely that all mechanisms may play a role in low-mass star and brown dwarf formation.
CITATION STYLE
Stamatellos, D. (2014). The formation of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. In Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings (Vol. 36, pp. 17–24). Kluwer Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03041-8_3
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.