19 95MNRAS.272. .630S Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 272
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Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 272, 630-646 (1995) .630S Optical spectroscopy of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the Pleiades 95MNRAS.272. 19 I. A. Steele and R. F. Jameson Astronomy Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LEI 7RH Accepted 1994 September 17. Received 1994 September 14; in original form 1994 July 8 ABSTRACT We present low-resolution spectra in the range 4600-9700 À of a sample of low- mass stars and brown dwarf candidates in the Pleiades. We order the spectra into a temperature sequence, using a least-squares minimization procedure, and assign spectral types. The effectiveness of various proposed spectroscopic and photometric temperature indicators for low-mass stars is investigated. We find that the most effective spectroscopic temperature indicators are those based on molecular bands, especially TiO, rather than atomic transitions. We also find that the Pleiades objects may have surface gravities slightly lower than main-sequence objects of the same temperature, supporting their identification as pre-main-sequence cluster members. We investigate the effect of unresolved binarity on the temperature indicators, and conclude that ~ 46 per cent of low-mass systems in the Pleiades are multiple. Finally, we discuss how these results affect the status of our brown dwarf candidates, revising the number to 11 systems containing such candidates, of which three are single and the remainder binary. Key words: binaries: general - stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs - open clusters and associations: individual: Pleiades. 1 INTRODUCTION tion was based on comparison of the I — K colour and I- band luminosity with the theoretical models of Stringfellow The Pleiades open cluster presents a unique opportunity to (1991), converted to the observational plane using the tem- investigate a nearby sample of low-mass stars which have a perature scale and bolometric corrections presented by small scatter in age and metallicity. In addition, the Pleiades Bessell(1991). age ( ~ 70 Myr, Harris 1976; Patenaude 1978) and distance In this paper, we will quote all RI photometry on the (ra-M=5.65, Hambly 1991) mean that we have a real Cousins system defined by Bessell (1986). All JHK photo- chance of detecting substellar ‘brown dwarfs’ in the cluster. metry will be on the natural UKIRT system. An error was In the past, however, observations have been hampered by a made by SJH93 in converting their CCD and photographic I lack of membership information to identify the lowest mass magnitudes to the Cousins system. Table 1 lists the corrected members of the cluster. This situation has now been rectified /magnitudes for the SJH93 objects. The degree of error in / by the proper-motion survey of Hambly, Hawkins & magnitudes varies with colour, from ~ 5 per cent for the Jameson (1991, 1993, hereafter HHJ91 and HHJ93, bluest objects to ~ 20 per cent for the reddest. In addition, respectively). Their technique was to use the COSMOS the JHK magnitudes of one object, HHJ36, are also incorrect measuring machine of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh in SJH93. We have re-reduced our observations of this (MacGillivray & Stobie 1984) to scan first- and second- object, and revise its photometry to /= 14.00 ±0.04, epoch Schmidt plates of the cluster. The software of Hawkins //= 13.44±0.04, *:= 13.17±0.04 (i.e. 0.68 mag fainter at (1986) was then used to pair up images and so derive proper all wavelengths). This increases the apparent age of this motions. A full description of the technique is given in object from SJH93’s ~ 3 Myr to the more reasonable age of HHJ91, who derive luminosity and mass functions for the ~ 40 Myr, and in Section 3.5 below we shall see that this cluster. HHJ93 present the full proper-motion catalogue, object may, in fact, be classified as a binary for the cluster age with coordinates, finder charts and photographic R and / of ~ 70 Myr. magnitudes. In order to investigate the effect of the error in the I In Steele, Jameson & Hambly (1993, hereafter SJH93), we magnitudes on the primary conclusion of SJH93 (their 22 presented infrared photometry of 68 of the HHJ91 members brown dwarf candidates), Fig. 1 plots a revised version of and identified 22 brown dwarf candidates. This identifica- SJH93’s fig. 5, the /, I — K colour-magnitude diagram. © Royal Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System Low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the Pleiades 631 .630S Table 1. Corrected Cousins /-band photometry for the objects of second-night objects will therefore be unreliable. This is not Steele, Jameson & Hambly (1993). Asterisks indicate CCD obser- important, since we will in general be concerned only with vations accurate to ~ 1 per cent. Other observations are photo- normalized spectra in the analysis of Section 3. All of the graphic in origin, and accurate to ~ 12 per cent. objects observed were at airmass < 2.0, and in most cases < 1.3. In all cases, care was taken to rotate the slit to as near 95MNRAS.272. ID / ID / ID / ID / the ‘parallactic angle’ as possible to compensate for the 19 HHJ2 17.30" HHJ37 16.24 HHJ4 17.20" HHJ16 16.62* HHJ291 14.45 HHJ92 15.74 HHJ7 18.88" HHJ10 16.90 effects of differential atmospheric refraction (Filippenko HHJ236 14.79 HHJ198 14.99 HHJ292 14.43 HHJ36 16.18* 1982). HHJ153 15.20 HHJ26 16.44 HHJ133 15.39 HHJ79 15.75 Table 2 presents a list of the objects observed, with HHJ320 14.22 HHJ15 16.71 HHJ39 16.23 116 17.39* exposure times and observation dates. The Pleiades objects HHJ413 13.38 HHJ21 16.59 HHJ19 16.62 115 17.96 HHJ89 15.74 HHJ288 14.45 HHJ101 15.69 18 17.51* observed were all taken from HHJ93, who give coordinates, HHJ321 14.21 HHJ373 13.72 HHJ12 16.82 14 17.85 finder charts and photographic R and /magnitudes. RCJHK HHJ391 13.52" HHJ339 14.06 HHJ6 16.99 125 17.75 photometry is given in SJH93 for the objects in the present HHJ5 17.04 HHJ10 16.90 HHJ58 15.93 13 17.32* sample which they observed. The revised / photometry (see HHJ139 15.34 HHJ3 17.41" HHJ18 16.64 117 17.76 c HHJ81 15.75 HHJ8 16.94 HHJ46 16.32" 110 18.07 Section 1) for the SJH93 objects is given in Table 1, as HHJ204 14.96 HHJ440 12.97 HHJ24 16.46 112 17.90 described previously. Several sets of objects were targeted HHJ425 13.17 HHJ22 16.55 HHJ54 15.93 15 18.05 for observation. These were (i) a sample of the lowest mass HHJ410 13.43 HHJ13 16.75 HHJ14 16.75 17 17.38* objects identified by SJH93, (ii) a sample of X-ray-bright HHJ25 16.48 HHJ28 16.43 HHJ118 15.54 111 18.08 HHJ27 16.44 HHJ20 16.59 HHJ11 16.82 113 17.84 Pleiades members identified in the ROS AT PSPC fields HHJ127 15.47 HHJ144 15.27 HHJ30 16.38 114 18.05* 200068, 200556 and 200557 by Hodgkin, Steele & HHJ297 14.37 HHJ430 13.08 HHJ9 16.92 Jameson (1995, in preparation), (iii) all of the objects for HHJ319 14.22 HHJ17 16.68 HHJ1 17.85* which we have also obtained partial or complete 1-2.5 pm HHJ390 13.73" HHJ85 15.74 HHJ23 16.47 spectra (Steele et al. 1995, in preparation), and (iv) a sample of objects from HHJ91 with various R—I colours and lumin- osities, including one object (HHJ144) which SJH93 deter- Comparison with fig. 5 of SJH93 shows that most objects mine photometrically to be a cluster non-member. Many now appear slightly older, and therefore have slightly higher objects, of course, fall into more than one category, and we masses. The overall effect is, however, small. Several of the will not distinguish between these categories in the objects that were previously just classified as brown dwarfs discussion that follows. In addition, a sample of M dwarf (i.e. M~0.08Mo) now appear to have masses slightly spectral standards from Kirkpatrick, Henry & McCarthy greater than this limit, lowering the total number of apparent (1991, hereafter K91) and Leggett (1992) were observed in brown dwarf candidates to 13. Further effects of the error in order to provide comparison spectra for typing. These are the I magnitudes of SJH93, along with the implications of also Usted in Table 2. more recent theoretical models and the conclusions of this The data were reduced using routines from the Starlink- paper on SJH93’s brown dwarf candidates, will be discussed supported package fígaro (Shortridge 1991). The order- in Section 3.6 below. separating cross-disperser introduces a curvature into the To investigate further the properties of the Pleiades low- spectra, which was removed before any further reduction mass main sequence and the brown dwarf candidates of took place. Both tungsten and sky flats were used to flat-field SJH93, spectroscopy is the next logical step. This paper the data, and the instrumental response was calibrated using therefore presents the results of optical spectroscopy of 31 of observations of standards from Oke & Gunn (1983). Atmos- HHJ’s members. A companion paper (Steele et al. 1994, in pheric extinction effects were removed using the extinction preparation) will present the results of CGS4 1-2.5 \im tables of King (1985); however, no attempt was made to spectroscopy of a smaller sample of these objects. remove terrestrial 02 and water vapour absorption features from the spectra, as the humidity variations through each 2 OBSERVATIONS AND DATA REDUCTION night were large.