BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//ZContent.net//ZapCalLib 1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Atlantic/Canary:20151029T103000
DTEND;TZID=Atlantic/Canary:20151029T113000
UID:iactalks-842
X-WR-CALNAME: IAC Talks: Open Astronomy Seminars
X-ORIGINAL-URL: /iactalks/Talks/view/842
CREATED:2015-10-29T10:30:00+00:00
X-WR-CALDESC: IAC Talks upcomming talks
SUMMARY:Physical Characterization of Brown Dwarfs
DESCRIPTION:Physical Characterization of Brown Dwarfs\nDr. Elena Manjavacas
 \n\nThe initial mass function describes the distribution of masses for a  
 population of stars and substellar objects when they are born. It  defines
  the evolution of a population of stars and provides constrains  on the st
 ar formation theory. The determination of the initial mass  function in th
 e substellar regime is still an open question in   Astrophysics. Brown dwa
 rfs do not have enough mass to sustain hydrogen  fusion. As a consequence,
  mass and age are degenerate for these objects.   An older high mass objec
 t may be  indistinguishable from a younger low  mass object. In my PhD the
 sis, through the characterization of brown  dwarfs using several observati
 onal methods, I work towards solving the  general problem of constraining 
 the substellar initial mass function.\nIn my first project, I calculated t
 rigonometric parallaxes of a sample  of six cool brown dwarfs. I determine
 d the luminosity for our objects  and I found that one of them might be a 
 brown dwarf binary. In my second  project, I confirmed the youth of seven 
 brown dwarfs (ages between 1  and 150 Myr) using spectroscopic data.In the
  last project of this PhD  thesis, I aimed to refine the brown dwarf binar
 y fraction using  spectroscopic data in the optical and in the near infrar
 ed for 22 brown  dwarfs. I found six new brown dwarf binary candidates, tw
 o of them were  previously known.\nThe determination of distances, ages an
 d the  refinement of the brown dwarf binary fraction in this PhD thesis  c
 ontribute to the determination of the initial mass function. In the next y
 ears, the Gaia satellite, the James Webb Space Telescope  and the E-ELT wi
 ll provide new  data, allowing the discovery of new  brown dwarf binaries,
  the constraining of atmospheric and evolutionary  models, and the refinem
 ent of the initial mass function.
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR