TY - JOUR
T1 - Eleven new transiting brown dwarfs and very low mass stars from TESS
AU - Vowell, Noah
AU - Rodriguez, Joseph E.
AU - Latham, David W.
AU - Quinn, Samuel N.
AU - Schulte, Jack
AU - Eastman, Jason D.
AU - Bieryla, Allyson
AU - Barkaoui, Khalid
AU - Ciardi, David R.
AU - Collins, Karen A.
AU - Girardin, Eric
AU - Hébrard, Guillaume
AU - Heldridge, Elisabeth
AU - Jafariyazani, Marziye
AU - Kotten, Brooke
AU - Mancini, Luigi
AU - Murgas, Felipe
AU - Narita, Norio
AU - Radford, D. J.
AU - Relles, Howard M.
AU - Shporer, Avi
AU - Soares-Furtado, Melinda
AU - Strakhov, Ivan A.
AU - Ziegler, Carl
AU - Briceño, César
AU - Calkins, Michael L.
AU - Clark, Catherine A.
AU - Collins, Kevin I.
AU - de Leon, Jerome
AU - Esquerdo, Gilbert A.
AU - Fajardo-Acosta, Sergio B.
AU - Forveille, Thierry
AU - Fukui, Akihiko
AU - Watkins, Cristilyn N.
AU - He, Ruixuan
AU - Heidari, Neda
AU - Horne, Keith
AU - Jenkins, Jon M.
AU - Mann, Andrew W.
AU - Naponiello, Luca
AU - Palle, Enric
AU - Schwarz, Richard P.
AU - Seager, S.
AU - Southworth, John
AU - Srdoc, Gregor
AU - Swift, Jonathan J.
AU - Winn, Joshua N.
N1 - Funding: The authors acknowledge financial support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the ERDF “A way of making Europe” through project PID2021-125627OB-C32, and from the Centre of Excellence “Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. D.R.C. and C.A.C. acknowledge partial support from NASA grant 18-2XRP18_2-0007. This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. JP24H00017, JP24K00689 and JSPS Bilateral Program Number JPJSBP120249910. N.V. is supported by the NASA FINESST program. The postdoctoral fellowship of K.B. is funded by F.R.S.-FNRS grant T.0109.20 and by the Francqui Foundation. K.A.C. and C.N.W. acknowledge support from the TESS mission via subaward s3449 from MIT. I.A.S. acknowledges the support of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University Program of Development. F.M. acknowledge support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación del Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU/AEI) through grant PID2023-152906NA-I00. L.M. acknowledges financial contribution from PRIN MUR 2022 project 2022J4H55R. T.F.’s work is supported by the French National Research Agency in the framework of the Investissements d’Avenir program (ANR-15-IDEX-02), through the funding of the “Origin of Life” project of the Grenoble-Alpes University.
PY - 2025/8/1
Y1 - 2025/8/1
N2 - We present the discovery of 11 new transiting brown dwarfs (BDs) and low-mass M dwarfs from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission: TOI-2844, TOI-3122, TOI-3577, TOI-3755, TOI-4462, TOI-4635, TOI-4737, TOI-4759, TOI-5240, TOI-5467, and TOI-5882. They consist of five BD companions and six very-low-mass stellar companions ranging in mass from 25 MJ to 128 MJ. We used a combination of photometric time-series, spectroscopic, and high-resolution imaging follow-up as a part of the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (or TFOP) to characterize each system. With over 50 transiting BDs confirmed, we now have a large enough sample to directly test different formation and evolutionary scenarios. We provide a renewed perspective on the transiting “brown dwarf desert” and its role in differentiating between planetary and stellar formation mechanisms. Our analysis of the eccentricity distribution for the transiting BD sample does not support previous claims of a transition between planetary and stellar formation at ∼42 MJ. We also contribute a first look into the metallicity distribution of transiting companions in the range 7–150 MJ, showing that this does not support a ∼42 MJ transition too. Finally, we also detect a significant lithium absorption feature in one of the BD hosts (TOI-5882). However, we determine that the host star is likely old based on rotation, kinematic, and photometric measurements. We therefore claim that TOI-5882 may be a candidate for planetary engulfment.
AB - We present the discovery of 11 new transiting brown dwarfs (BDs) and low-mass M dwarfs from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission: TOI-2844, TOI-3122, TOI-3577, TOI-3755, TOI-4462, TOI-4635, TOI-4737, TOI-4759, TOI-5240, TOI-5467, and TOI-5882. They consist of five BD companions and six very-low-mass stellar companions ranging in mass from 25 MJ to 128 MJ. We used a combination of photometric time-series, spectroscopic, and high-resolution imaging follow-up as a part of the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (or TFOP) to characterize each system. With over 50 transiting BDs confirmed, we now have a large enough sample to directly test different formation and evolutionary scenarios. We provide a renewed perspective on the transiting “brown dwarf desert” and its role in differentiating between planetary and stellar formation mechanisms. Our analysis of the eccentricity distribution for the transiting BD sample does not support previous claims of a transition between planetary and stellar formation at ∼42 MJ. We also contribute a first look into the metallicity distribution of transiting companions in the range 7–150 MJ, showing that this does not support a ∼42 MJ transition too. Finally, we also detect a significant lithium absorption feature in one of the BD hosts (TOI-5882). However, we determine that the host star is likely old based on rotation, kinematic, and photometric measurements. We therefore claim that TOI-5882 may be a candidate for planetary engulfment.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105011695647
U2 - 10.3847/1538-3881/addd17
DO - 10.3847/1538-3881/addd17
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-6256
VL - 170
JO - The Astronomical Journal
JF - The Astronomical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 68
ER -