Splinter session at Coolstars 17 conference, Barcelona, June 24-29, 2012

Disks, accretion and outflows of brown dwarfs

SOC: Viki Joergens, Juan Alcala, Thomas Henning, Antonella Natta, Aurora Sicilia-Aguilar, Emma Whelan
          (Contact: cs17bddisk @ mpia.de)


Invited review speakers:

Gregory Herczeg (KIAA/Peking University): "Accretion in brown dwarf disks"
Ilaria Pascucci (Space Telescope Science Institute): "Gas and grain evolution in brown dwarf disks"
Emma Whelan (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies): "Brown dwarf winds and outflows"
Sebastian Wolf (University of Kiel): "Brown dwarf disk masses and geometries"


Program: PDF File

Scientific Rationale:

Young brown dwarfs (BD) provide a link between star and planet formation and have, therefore, an important role in developing our understanding of formation processes in star forming regions. Exploration of the circum(sub)stellar environment (disks, accretion, outflows) of young BDs and very low-mass stars (VLMS) allows us to study disk physics and planet formation processes at low masses and temperatures. Also the formation mechanism for BDs is at present much debated and indeed it has been postulated that they may form by more than one mechanism. Detailed studies of the circum(sub)stellar environments of young BD/VLMS provide critical constraints to these different formation mechanisms and therefore are needed to identify the dominant mechanism. In particular, if BDs form like low mass stars we expect their accretion and outflow properties to be similar to the ones observed in low mass stars. Several new instruments that are ideally suited to study disks and outflows of faint objects (PACS/Herschel, X-Shooter/VLT, ALMA-early science) are just producing the first results. The aim of this splinter meeting is to bring the leading scientists in BD/VLMS disks and outflow studies together and highlight and review the newest results in this field by several invited as well as contributed talks.

Outstanding questions in this field:
  • What are BD/VLM disk masses? Accretion vs disk mass connection?
  • How does grain evolution in BD/VLM disks happen?
  • What are BD/VLMS outflow properties (similar/different to T Tauri stars)?
  • What is the outflow versus accretion rate for BD/VLMS?


Registration:
via the Coolstars 17 conference page. Deadline: March 15, 2012.

Abstract submission:
directly to cs17bddisk @ mpia.de. Deadline: March 15, 2012.






(Further information will follow.)