2013/07/05 by B. Riaz, Riaz, B.
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1307.1593
Invited review to appear in the proceedings of the conference 'Brown dwarfs come of age', May 20-24 2013, Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana
arxiv created 2013/07/05 · arxiv updated 2013/07/08
An investigation of the magnetospheric accretion and outflow signatures in sub-stellar objects is a natural extension of similar studies conducted on classical T Tauri stars (CTTS), and helps understand if brown dwarfs (BDs) follow the same formation mechanism as stars. Over the past decade, evidence for accretion in very low-mass stars (VLMs) and BDs has been accumulated using various techniques, which indicates that the overall accretion characteristics are continuous across the sub-stellar boundary. Outflow activity in VLMs and BDs has been confirmed based on spectro-astrometry of forbidden emission lines observed in the optical, and in millimetre continuum images of CO J=2-1 emission. This review summarizes the past and current state of observational work on accretion and outflow activity in VLMs and BDs, particularly with the advent of new instruments such as VLT/X-Shooter which has allowed the study of several accretion and outflow indicators over a wider wavelength range.