2024/01/19 by Emily Calamari, Jacqueline K. Faherty, Calamari, Emily +9 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2401.11038
openalex publication_date 2024/01/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We present results from conducting a theoretical chemical analysis of a sample of benchmark companion brown dwarfs whose primary star is of type F, G or K. We summarize the entire known sample of these types of companion systems, termed "compositional benchmarks", that are present in the literature or recently published as key systems of study in order to best understand brown dwarf chemistry and condensate formation. Via mass balance and stoichiometric calculations, we predict a median brown dwarf atmospheric oxygen sink of 17.8+1.7-2.3% by utilizing published stellar abundances in the local solar neighborhood. Additionally, we predict a silicate condensation sequence such that atmospheres with bulk Mg/Si \lesssim 0.9 will form enstatite (MgSiO3) and quartz (SiO2) clouds and atmospheres with bulk Mg/Si \gtrsim 0.9 will form enstatite and forsterite (Mg2SiO4) clouds. Implications of these results on C/O ratio trends in substellar mass objects and utility of these predictions in future modeling work are discussed.