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BROWN DWARFS IN YOUNG MOVING GROUPS FROM PAN-STARRS1. I. AB DORADUS

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Published 2016 April 20 © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
, , Citation Kimberly M. Aller et al 2016 ApJ 821 120 DOI 10.3847/0004-637X/821/2/120

0004-637X/821/2/120

ABSTRACT

Substellar members of young (≲150 Myr) moving groups are valuable benchmarks to empirically define brown dwarf evolution with age and to study the low-mass end of the initial mass function. We have combined Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) proper motions with optical–IR photometry from PS1, Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), and WISE to search for substellar members of the AB Dor Moving Group within ≈50 pc and with spectral types of late M to early L, corresponding to masses down to ≈30 MJup at the age of the group (≈125 Myr). Including both photometry and proper motions allows us to better select candidates by excluding field dwarfs whose colors are similar to young AB Dor Moving Group members. Our near-IR spectroscopy has identified six ultracool dwarfs (M6–L4; ≈30–100 MJup) with intermediate surface gravities (int-g) as candidate members of the AB Dor Moving Group. We find another two candidate members with spectra showing hints of youth but consistent with field gravities. We also find four field brown dwarfs unassociated with the AB Dor Moving Group, three of which have int-g gravity classification. While signatures of youth are present in the spectra of our ≈125 Myr objects, neither their JK nor W1 – W2 colors are significantly redder than field dwarfs with the same spectral types, unlike younger ultracool dwarfs. We also determined PS1 parallaxes for eight of our candidates and one previously identified AB Dor Moving Group candidate. Although radial velocities (and parallaxes, for some) are still needed to fully assess membership, these new objects provide valuable insight into the spectral characteristics and evolution of young brown dwarfs.

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1. INTRODUCTION

Young moving groups (YMGs) are coeval associations of stars with similar space motions and with ages ranging from ∼10 to 100 Myr. It is believed that these groups have left their natal molecular cloud after formation and dispersed into the field (Zuckerman & Song 2004). As such, YMGs link stars in molecular clouds (∼1 Myr) to field stars (≳1 Gyr) no longer affiliated with their birth sites. Thus, YMGs are valuable laboratories for studying recent star formation in the solar neighborhood. Because of the proximity of the known YMGs (≲100 pc), they are ideal candidates for characterizing the initial mass function (IMF) down to substellar masses. Although substellar objects are generally very faint, younger brown dwarfs are more luminous (Chabrier et al. 2000) and thus more readily detected.

Characterization of young brown dwarfs and directly imaged planets has revealed that their spectral properties differ from those of their old field counterparts (e.g., Chauvin et al. 2005; Marois et al. 2008; Bowler et al. 2010, 2013; Patience et al. 2010). Young brown dwarfs have redder near-IR (NIR) colors and have spectra distinct from field objects. Studies of brown dwarfs in young clusters and moving groups have begun to delineate the brown dwarf spectral evolution, due to the lower surface gravity of younger objects (e.g., Allers et al. 2007; Allers & Liu 2013). In order to further characterize this evolution, we need to identify a larger sample of substellar objects at various young ages (∼10–100 Myr). Determining the substellar spectral sequence in YMGs with different ages would be a key step toward better understanding substellar evolution and benchmarking spectral indicators of youth.

The AB Doradus (AB Dor) Moving Group was first recognized as a sparse, comoving group of stars in the Local Association by Zuckerman et al. (2004). The age estimates for the AB Dor Moving Group vary substantially depending on the method, ranging from 50 to 150 Myr. Initially, Zuckerman et al. (2004) estimated an age of ∼50 Myr from color–magnitude diagrams. Analysis using evolutionary tracks and dynamical masses to study AB Dor C, a member of a quadruple system in the AB Dor Moving Group, yielded an age for the system of ∼75 Myr (Close et al. 2007). However, color–magnitude diagram comparisons of the lower-mass AB Dor Moving Group members with the Pleiades (≈125 Myr; e.g., Basri et al. 1996; Martín et al. 1998) and IC 2391 (∼35–50 Myr; e.g., Barrado y Navascués et al. 1999, 2004) suggested that the AB Dor Moving Group is roughly coeval with the Pleiades and older than IC 2391 (Luhman et al. 2005). Traceback of the AB Dor Moving Group kinematics has also concluded that the group and the Pleiades likely formed from the same large-scale star formation event and thus should be nearly the same age (Luhman et al. 2005; Ortega et al. 2007). By combining chemical and kinematic analysis of the AB Dor Moving Group members, Barenfeld et al. (2013) have also constrained the group to be approximately the age of the Pleiades with a lower age limit of 110 Myr.

Currently, the AB Dor Moving Group has one of the largest number of stellar members of the known YMGs, with ≈50 confirmed members with parallaxes (Zuckerman & Song 2004; Torres et al. 2008; Zuckerman et al. 2011). However, the lack of low-mass stars (≲0.5 M) in the known membership has prompted several recent surveys aimed at discovering these missing members. By using photometry and/or kinematics, several additional low-mass stellar candidate members (late K–mid-M dwarfs; ∼0.1–0.5 M) have emerged (e.g., Shkolnik et al. 2009; Schlieder et al. 2012; Malo et al. 2013). However, these surveys were less sensitive to the cooler, fainter substellar members. Currently, only CD-35 2722 B (L3; Wahhaj et al. 2011), 2MASS J1425–3650 (L4; Gagné et al. 2015c), 2MASS J0355+1133 (L5; Faherty et al. 2013; Liu et al. 2013a), WISEP J0047+6803 (L7; Gizis et al. 2015), and SDSS J1110+0116 (T5.5; Gagné et al. 2015a) have been confirmed as bona fide substellar members of the AB Dor Moving Group. Gagné et al. (2014, 2015c) have begun a systematic search to identify lower-mass stellar and substellar candidate members using Bayesian inference to calculate their YMG membership probabilities from proper motion, photometry, and, if available, radial velocities and distances.

In order to further the search for substellar YMG members, we are conducting a deep, wide-field search based on optical imaging data from Pan-STARRS1. Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) is a multiwavelength, multiepoch, optical imaging survey that covers ≈75% of the sky. PS1 goes ∼1 mag fainter than the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in the z band (York et al. 2000). Also, PS1 has a novel ${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ (0.918–1.001 μm) filter, which extends the wavelength coverage further into the NIR than past optical surveys, such as SDSS. Compared to previous optical surveys, the PS1 red optical filters, ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ and ${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, allow for more sensitivity and better characterization at redder wavelengths, both of which are advantageous for identifying substellar objects. We also combine PS1 and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) astrometry to compute proper motions for our search (the addition of 2MASS astrometry increases our time baseline by a factor of ∼3). Precise proper motions significantly increase our ability to distinguish faint, substellar candidate AB Dor Moving Group members from field interlopers.

We use 2MASS, PS1, and WISE to select substellar AB Dor Moving Group candidates. In Section 2 we discuss the PS1 photometry and proper-motion precision and the addition of 2MASS and WISE data. In Section 3 we describe our search method, which uses photometrically determined spectral types and proper-motion analysis to select candidates. In Section 4 we describe our spectroscopic follow-up and reduction. In Section 5 we determine spectral types, determine parallactic and photometric distances, assess the youth of our candidates, consider their membership in the AB Dor Moving Group, and estimate their physical properties. Our discussion is in Section 6, and our conclusions are in Section 7.

2. SURVEY DATA

PS1 is a 1.8 m, wide-field telescope located on Haleakalā on the island of Maui. The PS1 3π Survey covers the sky north of −30° decl., ≈75% of the sky. The survey's five optical filters, ${g}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, ${r}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, ${i}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, and ${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, are described in Stubbs et al. (2010) and Tonry et al. (2012). At each epoch a single field is exposed for 60 s in ${g}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, 38 s in ${r}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, and 30 s in ${i}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, and ${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$. The photometry and astrometry from each epoch have been combined to obtain average magnitudes and proper motions.

We used data from the PS1 3π survey (which began in 2010) to construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and determine proper motions of our candidates. We chose good-quality data according to the photometric quality flags set in the PS1 Desktop Virtual Observatory (DVO) database (Magnier 2006). Specifically, we select objects characterized by all of the following attributes: fits a point-spread function (PSF) model (not extended), is not saturated, has good sky measurement, is not likely a cosmic ray, a diffraction spike, a ghost, or a glint, does not lie between the image chips (i.e., to choose ${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ data we require (${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$:flags & 0x0000.0300)!=0 and (${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$:flags & 0x0000.1000)=0), and has the quality flag psf_qf ≥ 0.9 to ensure that at least 90% of the object is unmasked. Furthermore, we require objects to be detected at least twice in a single night in at least one of the five filters (${g}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, ${r}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, ${i}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$, ${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$) to remove potential spurious sources that would only appear as single detections. Finally, we require that a single bandpass measurement error be ≤0.1 mag in order to use that bandpass.

We then matched PS1 objects with their 2MASS counterparts using the 2MASS Point Source Catalog (Skrutskie et al. 2006). We chose good J, H, and K photometry based on the following requirements: measurement error ≤0.2 mag and cc_flg = 0 (i.e., no confusion). We also matched PS1 objects with their WISE counterparts from the WISE Point Source Catalog (Wright et al. 2010), which was available when we began our search. We chose objects with good photometry in W1 and W2 with measurement errors ≤0.2 mag and cc_flg = 0 (i.e., no confusion). The final WISE photometry for our objects presented here is from the updated AllWISE Catalog (Kirkpatrick et al. 2014), which was released after our initial search.

We also used astrometric data from PS1 and 2MASS. The PS1 proper motions have a 2–3 yr time baseline. To increase the time baseline from 2–3 yr to ∼10 yr, we combined astrometry from PS1 and 2MASS. For our data set, the typical 2MASS astrometric uncertainties are ≈70 mas, far larger than our typical PS1 uncertainties of ≈15 mas. By extending our time baseline, we improved our typical proper-motion precision from ≈7 mas yr−1 to ≈5 mas yr−1.

When calculating the proper motion for our objects, we used an outlier-resistant fitting method that calculates bisquare weights (Tukey's biweight) and iteratively fits the data to minimize the residuals. This method reduces the effects that potentially spurious data points have on our final proper-motion fit. We determined our proper-motion uncertainties by using bootstrap resampling of our data. We discuss the quality of our PS1+2MASS proper motions in the Appendix.

Finally, we constructed an initial catalog of objects with good-quality PS1+2MASS+WISE photometry and PS1+2MASS proper motions signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) ≥ 10, corresponding to a typical proper motion of ≥140 mas yr−1. Although by requiring the proper motions to have a high S/N we will miss slower-moving candidate members, only ≈13% of the confirmed AB Dor Moving Group members tabulated in Malo et al. (2013) have proper motions below 140 mas yr−1 and are within 50 pc (the approximate photometric distance limit of our search).

3. CANDIDATE SELECTION

After combining PS1, 2MASS, and WISE photometry to create an initial catalog of objects with good-quality proper motions and photometry (Section 2), we screened our initial catalog for probable late M and L dwarfs using the following color cuts: yJ ≥ 1.4, zy ≥ 0.5, and W1 − W2 ≥ 0. In addition, we selected for objects with ${i}_{{\rm{P1}}}$${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ ≥ 0.9 if the ${i}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ photometry met our quality requirements (Section 2). In order to remove potential galaxies from our sample, we chose objects with $W2-W3\leqslant 3$ (Wright et al. 2010).

Next, we constructed SEDs and estimated spectral types and photometric distances using the template-fitting method of Aller et al. (2013). We first created template SEDs from known ultracool dwarfs with spectral types of M and L based on the compilations by Kraus & Hillenbrand (2007), Faherty et al. (2009), Leggett et al. (2010), and DwarfArchives.org. Then we estimated the spectral type of our candidates by determining the best-matched template SED using a chi-squared fit. Our estimated photometric distances (dphot) were based on the Dupuy & Liu (2012) average J2MASS absolute magnitudes as a function of spectral type (Section 5.2). We required our candidates to have estimated spectral types from our SED fit later than M5, which corresponds to the stellar/substellar boundary at the age of the AB Dor Moving Group.

In addition, we limited our search to candidates with proper motions between 40 and 1000 mas yr−1. The lower proper-motion limit is set because we only chose candidates with proper motion S/N ≥ 10 and our minimum proper-motion uncertainty was ≈4 mas yr−1. Also, because we only matched PS1 sources with 2MASS counterparts within a 10'' radius, our proper-motion upper limit was approximately 1000 mas yr−1.

Because moving group members have space motions with a common characteristic direction and amplitude, we further refined our candidate selection using proper motion and sky position. Following Schlieder et al. (2012), we screened for candidates with space motions consistent with the AB Dor Moving Group. Specifically, we used proper motions to calculate the angle (θ) projected onto the plane of the sky between our candidates' proper motions and the average space motion vector of the known members of the AB Dor Moving Group (Torres et al. 2008). We also determined the kinematic distance (dkin), namely, a candidate's distance if it were a member of the AB Dor Moving Group with the same absolute proper-motion velocity (i.e., velocity in km s−1) as the average of the known members. In order to determine our selection criteria, we calculated θ and dkin for the known members of the AB Dor Moving Group with parallaxes from Torres et al. (2008) and determined that these members mainly have θ ≲ 40° (Figure 1). In addition, the 1σ distance range for known AB Dor Moving Group members is within 50 pc (Gagné et al. 2014). Therefore, we required our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members to have $\theta -{\sigma }_{\mathrm{theta}}$ ≤ 40° and ${d}_{\mathrm{kin}}-{\sigma }_{{d}_{\mathrm{kin}}}$ ≤ 50 pc. Finally, we also chose objects with dphot less than 50 pc (${d}_{\mathrm{phot}}-{\sigma }_{{d}_{\mathrm{phot}}}$ ≤ 50 pc) and consistent with their dkin within the uncertainties in both dkin and dphot. We allowed the dphot to vary within 50% to allow for uncertainties in determining photometric distance and in the absolute magnitudes of our candidates based on estimated spectral type.

Figure 1.

Figure 1. The kinematic distance (dkin) and θ for the known AB Dor Moving Group members with membership probability greater than 90% and parallaxes (Torres et al. 2008). We required our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members to have θ ≤ 40° because the majority of the known members also satisfy this requirement.

Standard image High-resolution image

In addition to photometric and kinematic information, we limited our search for AB Dor Moving Group members by sky positions. Based on the positions of known members, all candidates were selected to have Galactic latitude below 60° and declinations below 70°. We also ignored objects within 3° of the Galactic plane because of crowding.

Given the photometric distance limit of our search, we could detect objects with spectral types of ≈L4 at 50 pc, which corresponds to a mass of ≈30 MJup given the age of the AB Dor Moving Group. Thus, our search is sensitive to candidate substellar AB Dor Moving Group members with masses from the substellar-stellar boundary down to ≈30 MJup out to 50 pc. We tabulate the photometry, proper motions, dphot, dkin, and θ for our new candidate AB Dor Moving Group members in Table 1.

Table 1.  Observed Properties and Membership

Property PSO J004.7+41 PSO J035.8–15 PSO J039.6–21 PSO J167.1+68 PSO J232.2+63 PSO J236.8–16 PSO J292.9–06 PSO J306.0+16 PSO J318.4+35 PSO J334.2+28 PSO J351.3–11 PSO J358.5+22
μα cos δ (mas yr−1) 100.5 ± 4.4 135.1 ± 1.9 95.5 ± 1.5 −221.9 ± 3.1 −125.6 ± 3.4 −70.1 ± 1.5 21.0 ± 2.9 63.5 ± 4.3 109.0 ± 1.9 76.8 ± 26.7 148.8 ± 2.3 97.0 ± 2.1
μδ (mas yr−1) −130.3 ± 1.1 −137.7 ± 2.4 −150.4 ± 4.3 −193.7 ± 3.9 32.5 ± 3.4 −148.9 ± 3.7 −105.7 ± 2.6 −83.0 ± 6.2 −71.0 ± 1.6 −52.6 ± 11.0 −132.3 ± 1.9 −88.3 ± 1.9
μα cos δlita (mas yr−1) 94.2 ± 5.6 147.8 ± 8.8 102 ± 7.3 −238 ± 5.8 −119.7 ± 3.6 −64.1 ± 5.9 146.1 ± 6.9 93.5 ± 7.3
μδ,lita (mas yr−1) −138 ± 8.4 −148.8 ± 9 −158.4 ± 9.4 −197.7 ± 8.4 44.5 ± 6.9 −129.6 ± 6.6 −144.0 ± 6.9 −98.9 ± 8.9
${i}_{{\rm{P1}}}$(mag) 18.09 ± 0.01 16.98 ± 0.04 19.12 ± 0.01 17.733 ± 0.005 15.40 ± 0.01 18.42 ± 0.015 17.48 ± 0.01 20.258 ± 0.015 18.91 ± 0.01 21.56 ± 0.08 16.816 ± 0.006 19.74 ± 0.02
${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$(mag) 16.60 ± 0.02 16.00 ± 0.06 17.47 ± 0.06 16.214 ± 0.002 14.06 ± 0.01 16.905 ± 0.002 16.15 ± 0.01 18.843 ± 0.011 17.36 ± 0.01 20.21 ± 0.03 15.7 ± 0.004 18.2 ± 0.02
${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$(mag) 15.80 ± 0.01 15.24 ± 0.06 16.55 ± 0.01 15.211 ± 0.002 13.30 ± 0.01 15.931 ± 0.003 15.43 ± 0.01 17.872 ± 0.0124 16.30 ± 0.01 19.20 ± 0.03 15.1 ± 0.005 17.2 ± 0.02
Jb (mag) 14.10 ± 0.03 14.0 ± 0.02 14.8 ± 0.04 13.12 ± 0.02 11.64 ± 0.02 13.86 ± 0.03 13.86 ± 0.03 15.58 ± 0.06 14.3 ± 0.03 16.84 ± 0.17 13.6 ± 0.02 15.4 ± 0.05
Hb (mag) 13.50 ± 0.03 13.3 ± 0.03 14.2 ± 0.04 12.24 ± 0.02 10.94 ± 0.03 13.24 ± 0.03 13.20 ± 0.02 14.56 ± 0.06 13.4 ± 0.03 15.9 ± 0.2 13.0 ± 0.03 14.6 ± 0.04
Kb (mag) 13.10 ± 0.03 13.0 ± 0.02 13.8 ± 0.05 11.58 ± 0.02 10.55 ± 0.02 12.74 ± 0.03 12.79 ± 0.02 13.98 ± 0.05 12.8 ± 0.03 15.08 ± 0.16 12.7 ± 0.03 14.0 ± 0.05
W1 (mag) 12.76 ± 0.02 12.63 ± 0.02 13.43 ± 0.02 11.12 ± 0.02 10.30 ± 0.02 12.43 ± 0.02 12.52 ± 0.02 13.32 ± 0.03 12.23 ± 0.02 14.34 ± 0.03 12.45 ± 0.03 13.63 ± 0.03
W2 (mag) 12.45 ± 0.03 12.41 ± 0.02 13.11 ± 0.03 10.76 ± 0.02 10.06 ± 0.02 12.14 ± 0.02 12.29 ± 0.03 12.98 ± 0.03 11.85 ± 0.02 13.89 ± 0.04 12.24 ± 0.03 13.37 ± 0.04
dphotc (pc) 27 ± 4 44 ± 14 (90 ± 30) 26 ± 5 14 ± 3 12 ± 6 (22 ± 11) 26 ± 6 (52 ± 13) 39 ± 8 (80 ± 20) 40 ± 8 29 ± 9 59 ± 12 21 ± 7 (42 ± 15) 38 ± 8
dπ (pc) ${54.6}_{-9.2}^{+14}$ ${37}_{-6}^{+9}$ ${22}_{-3}^{+4}$ ${28}_{-3}^{+3}$ ${27}_{-3}^{+3}$ ${36}_{-4}^{+5}$ ${45}_{-10}^{+19}$ ${43}_{-6}^{+8}$
dstatd (pc) 34.6 ± 2.4 28.9 ± 1.4 26.1 ± 1.6 16.9 ± 1.2 22.5 ± 2.8 37.4 ± 1.8 49.4 ± 2.8 40.2 ± 4.0 28.9 ± 3.0 45.8 ± 5.4 33.3 ± 1.6 46.6 ± 2.8
dkin (pc) ${35}_{-2}^{+2}$ ${29}_{-2}^{+2}$ 28.${}_{-0.7}^{+0.7}$ ${19}_{-2}^{+2}$ ${23.2}_{-0.6}^{+0.6}$ ${38.7}_{-0.9}^{+0.9}$ ${52.4}_{-2}^{+3}$ ${42}_{-3}^{+3}$ ${30}_{-3}^{+3}$ ${53}_{-3}^{+4}$ ${32.9}_{-1.5}^{+2}$ ${45}_{-2}^{+2}$
θ (degrees) ${12}_{-3}^{+3}$ ${2.0}_{-3}^{+3}$ ${14}_{-3}^{+3}$ ${4}_{-4}^{+4}$ ${1.0}_{-0.7}^{+1.1}$ ${1.2}_{-0.9}^{+1.3}$ ${3.7}_{-2}^{+2}$ ${4}_{-3}^{+4}$ ${3}_{-2}^{+3}$ ${6}_{-3}^{+3}$ ${6}_{-2}^{+2}$ ${3}_{-2}^{+3}$
Ubeste (km s−1) [−0.3 ± 1.3] [−8.3 ± 1.0] [0.2 ± 1.6] −13.8 ± 2.7f [−13.3 ± 5.2] [−7.8 ± 1.3] [−7.8 ± 2.3] [−6.5 ± 5.0] [−7.4 ± 2.4] [−9.3 ± 6.7] [−14.2 ± 4.4] [−7.3 ± 1.6]
Vbeste (km s−1) [−23.2 ± 2.1] [−50.9 ± 10.0] [−34.0 ± 6.2] −28.5 ± 3.4f [−24.5 ± 5.5] [−19.4 ± 2.3] [−23.9 ± 3.4] [−23.9 ± 8.2] [−22.0 ± 13.8] [−24.7 ± 4.2] [−34.4 ± 10.6] [−25.8 ± 3.1]
Wbeste (km s−1) [−11.6 ± 2.8] [−10.6 ± 1.9] [−13.2 ± 1.3] −4.4 ± 0.5f [−2.6 ± 5.0] [−11.3 ± 1.0] [−8.5 ± 2.6] [−14.3 ± 4.4] [−18.5 ± 3.5] [−16.0 ± 7.0] [−21.8 ± 6.0] [−11.5 ± 3.0]
Δ(v)UVWe (km s−1) [8.6 ± 1.7] [23.6 ± 9.9] [10.0 ± 4.1] 11.2 ± 1.6f [12.4 ± 5.1] [8.7 ± 2.3] [6.6 ± 3.0] [4.5 ± 8.3] [7.4 ± 9.2] [4.4 ± 5.5] [12.1 ± 8.3] [2.5 ± 3.0]
dXYZe (pc) [28.5 ± 3.5] 37.9 ± 9.2 20.1 ± 6.1 35.4 ± 2.0f 50.9 ± 8.5 41.2 ± 2.1 [46.9 ± 6.2] [46.8 ± 6.2] 42.4 ± 4.2 [60.0 ± 11.2] 13.8 ± 2.2 39.5 ± 5.2
${P}_{\mathrm{AB}\mathrm{Dor}}$ 19.19% 49.06% 93.25% 0.23% 36.92 0.25% 6.77% (0%) 42.76% 88.1% 0.63% 50.37% 79.04%

Notes.

aThe literature proper motion is taken from Gagné et al. (2015c). bJ, H, and K are 2MASS magnitudes. cProperties in parentheses are calculated assuming that the object is overluminous compared with the field sequence by 1.5 mag. This reflects the systematic uncertainty in the photometric distances for our late M dwarf candidates. dThe AB Dor Moving Group statistical distances are determined using the BANYAN II web tool. eThe Ubest, Vbest, and Wbest positions are determined by the RV (between −20 and +20 km s−1) that minimizes the distance between the UVW positions of our candidates and the mean UVW positions of the known AB Dor Moving Group Members with membership probabilities of at least 75% from Torres et al. (2008). The distances, Δ(v)UVW and dXYZ, are the distances between the XYZ and the best-fit UVW position of our candidates and the mean positions of the known group members. As for all objects, except PSO J167.1+68f, the values for Ubest, Vbest, Wbest, ΔvUVW, and dXYZ (for objects without parallaxes) are not true measurements; we have enclosed them in brackets. fAs PSO J167.1+68 has an RV from Blake et al. (2010), we use this RV measurement to determine the UVW positions and the ${\rm{\Delta }}{(v)}_{{UVW}}$. Thus, the values are not enclosed in brackets.

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4. OBSERVATIONS

Field M and L dwarfs have similar colors and are more numerous than M and L dwarf members of the AB Dor Moving Group. Therefore, we require spectroscopy to determine whether our candidates are young brown dwarfs and thus potential members of this young (≈125 Myr old) moving group. Young brown dwarfs are spectroscopically distinguishable from field ultracool dwarfs because their lower surface gravity affects the depths of absorption lines and the overall continuum shape in the NIR (e.g., Allers et al. 2007; Allers & Liu 2013).

We obtained spectroscopic follow-up using SpeX (Rayner et al. 2003), the NIR (0.8–2.5 μm) spectrograph on the 3 m NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea. We used the low-resolution (LowRes15) prism mode with a 0farcs5 slit width (R ∼ 130) for dwarfs with estimated spectral types from SED fitting later than M8. For earlier M dwarfs, we used the moderate-resolution cross-dispersed (SXD) mode (R ∼ 750). These resolutions are sufficient to determine spectral type and assess youth using the Allers & Liu (2013) classification methods. Note that all spectra taken after 2014 August were observed using the upgraded version of SpeX (uSpeX), which has slightly larger wavelength coverage, 0.7–2.5 μm.

We also obtained spectroscopic follow-up using GNIRS, the NIR (0.8–2.5 μm) spectrograph on the 8 m Gemini telescope on Mauna Kea. We used the moderate-resolution (R ∼ 1700) cross-dispersed (SXD) mode with the 32 l mm−1 grating with the 0farcs15/pixel camera and the 0farcs3 slit.

Our observations were obtained using a standard ABBA nod pattern for sky subtraction. We observed an A0V standard star following each candidate and then took wavelength and flat-field calibrations immediately afterward. All SpeX spectra were reduced using version 3.4 (version 4.0 for uSpeX data) of the SpeXtool package (Vacca et al. 2003; Cushing et al. 2004). We reduced the GNIRS spectra using a custom version of SpeXtool (Liu et al. 2013b). Table 2 summarizes the observation details.

Table 2.  Spectroscopic Observations

Name R.A. (PS1) Decl. (PS1) Date Texp A0V Standard Setup Telescope Mean S/N
  (J2000) (J2000) (UT) (s)       (J, H, K)
PSO J004.7+41 00:19:07.65 +41:01:23.30 2014 Jan 17 1680 HD 23594 prism IRTF 57, 61, 68
PSO J035.8–15 02:23:28.40 −15:11:37.64 2013 Nov 23 960 HD 20911 SXD IRTF 48, 56, 53
PSO J039.6–21 02:38:32.47 −21:46:28.78 2013 Sep 22 600 HD 31506 prism IRTF 33, 30, 30
PSO J167.1+68 11:08:30.25 +68:30:14.39 2015 Jun 24 956 HD 89239 SXD IRTF 65, 86, 102
PSO J232.2+63 15:29:09.96 +63:12:54.50 2013 Aug 09 180 HD 172728 SXD IRTF 167, 171, 184
PSO J236.8–16 15:47:05.52 −16:26:32.20 2015 Jan 28 87.6 HD 133569 prism IRTF 59, 53, 40
PSO J292.9–06 19:31:44.93 −06:20:48.91 2015 Sep 25 59.8 HD 190454 prism IRTF 160, 134, 124
PSO J306.0+16 20:24:03.05 +16:47:49.09 2015 Jul 15 717.3 HD 192538 prism IRTF 75, 75, 80
PSO J318.4+35 21:13:41.83 +35:07:39.95 2013 Sep 22 180 HD 209932 prism IRTF 100, 95, 85
PSO J334.2+28 22:17:02.98 +28:56:37.98 2015 Jul 01 3000 HIP 111538 SXD Gemini 30, 44, 41
PSO J351.3–11 23:25:22.42 −11:21:05.18 2013 Dec 11 1440 HD 3604 SXD IRTF 35, 32, 29
PSO J358.5+22 23:54:12.66 +22:08:21.70 2013 Nov 23 720 HD 1561 prism IRTF 46, 33, 28

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5. RESULTS

5.1. Spectral Analysis

We determined the NIR spectral type of our objects using both the index-based and visual methods of Allers & Liu (2013). First, the quantitative method combines the spectral-type sensitive indices from Allers et al. (2007), Slesnick et al. (2004), and McLean et al. (2003) to calculate the average spectral type. All of these spectral type indices are valid across the spectral type range of our candidates except the McLean et al. (2003) H2O–D index, which is only valid for L dwarfs. We also performed a Monte Carlo simulation to propagate measurement errors of our reduced spectra into the index calculations in order to determine the spectral type uncertainties derived from each index.

Second, in addition to measuring indices to determine spectral type, we also visually compared our objects to M and L dwarf spectroscopic standards defined in Kirkpatrick et al. (2010). We used standard spectra taken from the IRTF Spectral Library (Cushing et al. 2005) and the SpeX Prism Library.5 Following the visual classification methods for young and intermediate-age objects of Allers & Liu (2013), we normalize both our candidates and the standard template in each NIR band separately (see Figure 2 for an example). However, because the H band of young/intermediate-aged brown dwarfs often has a distinctly different shape from old objects, the H band is not used for visual spectral type classification. Because selecting a standard with one subtype difference compared to our best-fitting standard produced a noticeably poorer fit, we assumed an uncertainty of one subtype for our visual classification (consistent with Allers & Liu 2013).

Figure 2.

Figure 2. An example of visual classification of one of our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members, PSO J035.8–15 (dark orange), by comparing to the Kirkpatrick et al. (2010) spectral standard M dwarfs (gray). The standards were taken from the IRTF Spectral Library (Cushing et al. 2005) and smoothed to the resolution of our candidate spectrum (in this case, R ∼ 750). The standards are, from top to bottom, Gl 51 (M5), Gl 406 (M6), Gl 644C (M7), VB 10 (M8), and LHS 2924 (M9). The spectral type determined from visual classification for this object is M7 ± 1 in both the J and K band.

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Our final spectral type is the weighted mean of the index-based and visual spectral types as in Allers & Liu (2013). As we use the Allers & Liu (2013) method, we also adopt a conservative spectral type uncertainty of one subtype. The spectral types for our candidates are tabulated in Table 3. In Figure 3 we show the spectra of our candidates in addition to the four known brown dwarf members, CD-35 2722 B (Wahhaj et al. 2011), 2MASS J0355+1133 (Faherty et al. 2013; Liu et al. 2013a), WISEP J0047+6803 (Gizis et al. 2015), and SDSS J1101+0116 (Gagné et al. 2015a).

Figure 3.

Figure 3. NIR spectra of our confirmed young brown dwarf AB Dor Moving Group candidates (shades of red) in addition to the four known brown dwarf members (blue) with publicly available spectra: CD-35 2722 B (Wahhaj et al. 2011), 2MASS J0355+1133 (Faherty et al. 2013; Liu et al. 2013a), WISEP J0047+6803 (Gizis et al. 2012, 2015), and SDSS J1110+0116 (Gagné et al. 2015a). The spectra are ordered from earliest spectral type (highest mass) to latest spectral type (lowest mass).

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Table 3.  Spectral Type

Name J SpTa K SpTa H2O H2O–D H2O–1 H2O–2 Final SpT
PSO J004.7+41 M9 ± 1 M9 ± 1 L0.1${}_{-0.4}^{+0.4}$ b L1.3${}_{-1.1}^{+1.1}$ L0.4${}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}$ L0.1 ± 1.0
PSO J035.8–15 M7 ± 1 M7 ± 1 M6.9${}_{-0.4}^{+0.4}$ b M8.6${}_{-1.0}^{+1.1}$ M7.2${}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}$ M7.1 ± 1.0
PSO J039.6–21 L1 ± 1 L3 ± 1 L3.9${}_{-1.0}^{+0.9}$ L2.0${}_{1.0}^{+0.9}$ L4.8${}_{-1.1}^{+1.0}$ L0.9${}_{-0.9}^{+1.0}$ L2.6 ± 1.0
PSO J167.1+68 L2 ± 1 L2 ± 1 L2.1${}_{-0.3}^{+0.4}$ L1.1${}_{-0.7}^{+0.8}$ L2.5${}_{-1.0}^{+1.1}$ L1.6${}_{0.5}^{+0.4}$ L1.8 ± 1.0
PSO J232.2+63 M7 ± 1 M7 ± 1 M7.8${}_{-0.4}^{+0.3}$ M8.6${}_{-1.1}^{+1.1}$ M7.8${}_{-0.5}^{+0.4}$ M7.8 ± 1.0
PSO J236.8–16 M9 ± 1 L0 ± 1 L0.1${}_{-0.6}^{+0.6}$ L1.1${}_{-0.9}^{+0.9}$ M9.8${}_{-1.0}^{+1.1}$ M7.8${}_{-0.6}^{+0.6}$ M9.4 ± 1.0
PSO J292.9–06 M8 ± 1 M8 ± 1 M7.2${}_{-0.4}^{+0.4}$ M8.7${}_{-1.1}^{+1.0}$ M7.7${}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}$ M7.6 ± 1.0
PSO J306.0+16 L3.5 ± 1 L2.5 ± 1 L2.0${}_{-0.4}^{+0.4}$ L3.0${}_{-0.8}^{+0.8}$ L2.1${}_{1.1}^{+1.1}$ L2.1${}_{0.5}^{+0.6}$ L2.3 ± 1
PSO J318.4+35 L2 ± 1 L1 ± 1 L0.8${}_{-0.4}^{+0.5}$ L2.0${}_{-0.7}^{+0.7}$ L2.1${}_{-1.0}^{+1.1}$ L0.1${}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}$ L0.9 ± 1.0
PSO J334.2+28 L4.5 ± 1 L3 ± 1 L3.8${}_{-0.4}^{+0.5}$ L2.6${}_{-0.7}^{+0.7}$ L3.4${}_{-1.1}^{+1.0}$ L3.5 ± 1
PSO J351.3–11 M6 ± 1 M7 ± 1 M6.8${}_{-0.4}^{+0.4}$ b M6.6${}_{-1.1}^{+1.1}$ M6.2${}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}$ M6.5 ± 1.0
PSO J358.5+22 L1 ± 1 L3 ± 1 L1.2${}_{-1.0}^{+0.9}$ L1.8${}_{-1.0}^{+1.0}$ L2.6${}_{-1.2}^{+1.3}$ L2.1${}_{-0.8}^{+0.6}$ L1.9 ± 1.0

Notes.

aThis spectral type is determined by visual classification. bThe H2O–D index is undefined for this spectral type.

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We then assessed the gravity classification of our objects using spectral indices defined in Allers & Liu (2013). Under their classification scheme, several indices are measured in the J and H bands and then are each assigned a score (0, 1, or 2) according to the index value and the spectral type of the object, with higher numbers indicating lower gravity. These scores are combined into a final 4-number gravity score that represents the FeH, VO, alkali lines, and H-band continuum indices (e.g., 0110, 2110, etc.). Finally, this gravity score is used to determine the overall gravity classification for the object: field gravity (fld-g), intermediate gravity (int-g), or very low gravity (vl-g). We describe the method in more detail below and also describe some modifications we have made to account for the modest S/N of some of our spectra.

5.1.1. Gravity Index Calculations and Uncertainties

Depending on the spectral resolution, there is a specific set of gravity indices used to assess the overall gravity classification of an object. The FeHz, VOz, and K iJ indices from Allers & Liu (2013) are tailored to assess gravity in low-resolution (R ∼ 130) spectra. In order to measure these indices from our moderate-resolution SXD spectra (R ∼ 750), we smoothed those spectra to R = 130. The H-cont index from Allers & Liu (2013) is used to assess gravity in either low- or moderate-resolution spectra by measuring the shape of the H band, specifically how close the blue end of the H-band continuum is to a straight line. For our moderate-resolution spectra, following Allers & Liu (2013), we also used the FeHJ index and the alkali line indices in the J band (Na i [1.138 μm], K i [1.169 μm], K i [1.177 μm], and K i [1.253 μm]) to assess gravity with the continuum used to compute pseudo-equivalent widths defined by a linear fit.

For each of these gravity indices, Allers & Liu (2013) estimate the flux uncertainties from the rms scatter about a linear fit to the continuum window around each index. In the case of high-S/N spectra this uncertainty in fitting the continuum is the dominant source of error to measure pseudo-equivalent widths. However, this approach underestimates the uncertainties for our lower-S/N spectra with S/N ∼ 40–100. Therefore, in our method, we determined the uncertainty in each index (σ) using a Monte Carlo simulation to propagate the spectrum measurement errors.

In order to examine the effects of low S/N in calculating the uncertainties for the gravity indices, we simulated spectra with a range of S/N and determined the alkali line gravity index values and uncertainties. We degraded the S/N of Gl 752B, an M8 from the IRTF Spectral Library (Rayner et al. 2009), from S/N of 500 down to 10. Then we calculated the measurement errors for the alkali line gravity indices (Na i [1.138 μm], K i [1.169 μm], K i [1.177 μm], and K i [1.253 μm]) using both a Monte Carlo simulation to propagate the measurement errors and the original method of Allers & Liu (2013). Our simulation shows that although both methods are consistent within uncertainties for these indices (Figure 4), the measurement errors are the main source of error for spectra with modest S/N (≲200).

Figure 4.

Figure 4. Comparison of the pseudo-equivalent width measurement uncertainties using our method (red open circles) and the Allers & Liu (2013) method (black circles). We include measurement uncertainties, whereas Allers & Liu (2013) only consider uncertainties in measuring continuum, which would dominate for high-S/N spectra (S/N ≳ 200). For our relatively lower S/N objects (S/N ≈ 40−100), we need to also include measurement errors when computing the uncertainties in the pseudo-equivalent widths. Although our measurement uncertainties are larger, our pseudo-equivalent widths are consistent with Allers & Liu (2013).

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5.1.2. Gravity Index Scores

After computing the index values and their uncertainties, we determine gravity scores for each of these indices, namely, 0, 1, or 2. Following Allers & Liu (2013), indices that are undefined for an object, because of spectral type and/or resolution, are given a score of "n." The Allers & Liu (2013) method also gives indices with values that are within 1σ (the index uncertainty) from the field sequence values a score of "?." We handle such objects slightly differently and instead do not give indices a score of "?" in order to better identify borderline objects between the int-g and fld-g values.

For objects with low-resolution spectra (R ∼ 130), only the FeHz, VOz, K iJ, and H-cont indices are used. As an example, for PSO J039.6–21, the FeHz, VOz, K iJ, and H-cont scores are 1021. But strictly following Allers & Liu (2013), the final scores would instead be 102? because the H-cont index value is within 1σ of the fld-g value.

For objects with moderate-resolution spectra (R ∼ 750), the Allers & Liu (2013) method uses a similar set of four measurements to assess gravity: one based on FeH, VOz, the alkali lines, and H-cont. The index scores for VOz and H-cont are computed in the same manner as for the low-resolution spectra. However, unlike for the low-resolution spectra, the final FeH and alkali line scores are determined by combining the scores from multiple indices. The final alkali line score is the mean (rounded up to the nearest integer) of the individual scores from the Na i [1.138 μm], K i [1.169 μm], K i [1.177 μm], and K i [1.253 μm] indices. As an example, for PSO J035.8–15, the scores for Na i [1.138 μm], K i [1.169 μm], K i [1.177 μm], and K i [1.253 μm] are 0101, and thus the final alkali line index score is 1. The final FeH index score is the larger of the FeHz and FeHJ scores. For 2MASS J0233–15, the scores for FeHz and FeHJ are 11, and thus the final FeH score is 1. After amalgamating the indices used to compute the final FeH and alkali line scores, the four scores (FeH, VOz, alkali lines, and H-cont) of our example object, PSO J035.8–15, are 1n12. In this example, the scores are the same when strictly following the Allers & Liu (2013) method, since none of the index scores are "?."

5.1.3. Gravity Classification

Following Allers & Liu (2013), after determining the scores for the FeH, VOz, alkali lines (K iJ for the low-resolution spectra or a combination of four pseudo-equivalent widths for moderate-resolution spectra), and H-band continuum indices, we reduce these four scores into a single value to represent the overall gravity classification. This overall gravity classification value is the median of these final four scores. If there was an even number of defined indices, we take the average of the two scores straddling the median. Objects with an overall gravity classification value ≤0.5 are classified as fld-g. Those objects with 0.5 < gravity classification value < 1.5 are classified as int-g, and those with a gravity classification value ≥1.5 are classified as vl-g.

Because our method uses a Monte Carlo simulation to propagate measurement uncertainties into the index values, our overall gravity classification also has uncertainties. Each Monte Carlo realization of an object's spectrum produces an overall gravity classification value, and we report the median value from all the realizations as the final result and the 68% confidence limits as the uncertainty. For instance, 2MASS J0223–15 has an overall gravity classification value of ${1.0}_{-0.0}^{+1.0}$, which corresponds to int-g. For comparison, using the original Allers & Liu (2013) method, 2MASS J0223–15 has gravity scores of 1n12, so the overall gravity classification value would be 1, which also corresponds to int-g but without any uncertainties.

As mentioned in Section 5.1.2, unlike Allers & Liu (2013), we do not ignore indices with values straddling the intermediate gravity and field gravity values. As a result, we may be able to identify borderline objects that have index values that hint at intermediate gravities but are not clearly separated from the field values. Therefore, we choose to classify objects with overall gravity classification values within 1σ of int-g as borderline intermediate gravity (int-g?). For example, an object with an overall gravity classification value of 0.5${}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}$ would be classified as int-g?.

Figures 5 and 6 compare the index values for each of our objects with the fld-g, int-g, and vl-g regions. In addition, as a visual check on the overall gravity classification, we compare our spectra to known old field dwarfs (fld-g) and young dwarfs (vl-g) in Figures 714. Table 4 tabulates the gravity indices and classification for our objects.

Figure 5.

Figure 5. NIR spectral indices from all of our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members. For the FeHz, VOz, and K iJ indices, we smoothed the spectra to prism resolution (R ∼ 130) because the indices are tailored for prism-resolution spectra. We compare the indices of our numbered candidates (red circles) with the defining values for very low gravity (vl-g), intermediate gravity (int-g), and field gravity (fld-g) taken from Allers & Liu (2013). Our objects are numbered as follows: (1) PSO J004.7+41, (2) PSO J035.8–15, (3) PSO J039.6–21, (4) PSO J167.1+68, (5) PSO J232.2+63, (6) PSO J236.8–16, (7) PSO J292.9–06, (8) PSO J306.0+16, (9) PSO J318.4+35, (10) PSO J334.2+28, (11) PSO J351.3–11, (12) PSO J358.5+22. The shaded regions define the gravity classification of fld-g (gray), int-g (gray blue), and vl-g (dark blue) for each index. Note that some indices only can be used for overall gravity classification within a range of spectral types or resolution (i.e., FeHJ is only for R ≳ 500). In these cases, we do not use the index value to determine the object's gravity score. We expect our AB Dor Moving Group candidates to have int-g given the age of the group (≈125 Myr).

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Figure 6.

Figure 6. NIR spectral indices of our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members taken in the cross-dispersed mode in IRTF/SpeX. We compare the indices of our candidates with the defining values for very low gravity (vl-g), intermediate gravity (int-g), and field gravity (fld-g) taken from Allers & Liu (2013). The shaded regions define the gravity classification of fld-g (gray), int-g (gray blue), and vl-g (dark blue) for each index. We expect our AB Dor Moving Group candidates to have intermediate gravities. Our objects have the same number labels as Figure 5.

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Figure 7.

Figure 7. NIR moderate-resolution (R ∼ 750) J-band spectra from IRTF/SpeX of our AB Dor Moving Group candidate, PSO J004.7+41 (red), compared with a field gravity (fld-g, light blue) and young, very low gravity (vl-g, dark blue) dwarf of similar spectral type (within half a spectral type). For our comparison spectra, we used the field spectral type standard objects from Kirkpatrick et al. (2010) if there were available SXD spectra in the SpeX Library. If not, we used the non-standard field object taken in SXD mode with the closest spectral type to our object. Young dwarfs were taken from the list of standard young objects in Allers & Liu (2013) if there were available moderate-resolution spectra. If not, we used a non-standard vl-g object from Allers & Liu (2013) with a spectral type within half a spectral type of our object. Gravity-sensitive features in the J band from Allers & Liu (2013) are labeled, and the wavelength ranges used to calculate gravity indices are highlighted for Na i (blue), K i (purple), and FeHJ (yellow-green). Members of the AB Dor Moving Group have an age of ≈125 Myr and thus are expected to have intermediate gravities lying between the field dwarfs (fld-g) and young dwarfs (vl-g). Although PSO J004.7+41 has a gravity classification of fld-g, the gravity indices show minor hints of intermediate gravity.

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Figure 8.

Figure 8. NIR moderate-resolution (R ∼ 750) spectra from IRTF/SpeX of our AB Dor Moving Group candidate, PSO J035.8–15 (red), compared with an fld-g (light blue) and vl-g (dark blue) dwarf of similar spectral type (within half a spectral type). We choose the comparison spectra as described in Figure 7.

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Figure 9.

Figure 9. NIR moderate-resolution (R ∼ 750) spectra from IRTF/SpeX of one of our AB Dor Moving Group candidates, PSO J167.1+68 (red), compared with an fld-g (light blue) and vl-g (dark blue) dwarf of similar spectral type (within half a spectral type). We choose the comparison spectra as described in Figure 7.

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Figure 10.

Figure 10. NIR moderate-resolution (R ∼ 750) spectra from IRTF/SpeX of one of our AB Dor Moving Group candidates, PSO J232.2+63 (red), compared with a fld-g (light blue) and vl-g (dark blue) dwarf of similar spectral type (within half a spectral type). We choose the comparison spectra as described in Figure 7.

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Figure 11.

Figure 11. NIR moderate-resolution (R ∼ 750) spectra from IRTF/SpeX of one of our AB Dor Moving Group candidates, PSO J351.3–11 (red), compared with an fld-g (light blue) and vl-g (dark blue) dwarf of similar spectral type (within half a spectral type). We choose the comparison spectra as described in Figure 7.

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Figure 12.

Figure 12. NIR moderate-resolution (R ∼ 1700) spectra from Gemini/GNIRS of one of our AB Dor Moving Group candidates, PSO J334.2+28 (red), compared with an fld-g (light blue) and vl-g (dark blue) dwarf of similar spectral type (within half a spectral type). We choose the comparison spectra as described in Figure 7.

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Figure 13.

Figure 13. NIR low-resolution (R ∼ 130) spectra from IRTF/SpeX of our candidates with overall gravity classifications of int-g compared with an fld-g (light blue) and a young, very low gravity (dark blue) dwarf of similar spectral type (within half a spectral type). We used field spectral standards from Kirkpatrick et al. (2010) if there was available low-resolution or moderate-resolution spectra. Young dwarfs were taken from the list of standard vl-g objects in Allers & Liu (2013) with publicly available spectra. All comparison spectra have been smoothed to R ∼ 130. Gravity-sensitive features from Allers & Liu (2013) are labeled, and the wavelength ranges used to calculate the gravity indices are highlighted for FeHz (yellow-green), VOz (blue), K iJ (purple), and H-cont (orange).

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Figure 14.

Figure 14. NIR low-resolution (R ∼ 130) spectra from IRTF/SpeX of our candidates with overall gravity classifications of int-g? compared with an fld-g (light blue) and a young, very low gravity (dark blue) dwarf of similar spectral type (within half a spectral type). All comparison spectra have been chosen as described in Figure 5 and smoothed to R ∼ 130. Gravity-sensitive features from Allers & Liu (2013) are labeled, and the wavelength ranges used to calculate the gravity indices are highlighted for FeHz (yellow-green), VOz (blue), K iJ (purple), and H-cont (orange).

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Table 4.  Gravity Indices and Classification

Name FeHz FeHJ VOz K iJ H-cont Index Na i K i K i K i EW Final Overall Overall
            Scoresa   [1.169] [1.177] [1.253] Index Gravity Gravity Gravity
                      Scoresa Scoresa Valueb Class
PSO J004.7+41 ${1.26}_{-0.01}^{+0.01}$ ${1.17}_{-0.01}^{+0.01}$ ${1.082}_{-0.006}^{+0.006}$ ${1.099}_{-0.004}^{+0.003}$ ${0.943}_{-0.003}^{+0.003}$ 01001 (01001) ${14}_{-1}^{+1}$ ${7.2}_{-0.5}^{+0.4}$ ${9.7}_{-0.4}^{+0.4}$ ${7.6}_{-0.3}^{+0.4}$ 0000 (0000) 1001 (100?) ${0.5}_{-0.0}^{+0.0}$ fld-g c
PSO J035.8–15 ${1.079}_{-0.008}^{+0.008}$ ${1.06}_{-0.01}^{+0.01}$ ${1.020}_{-0.006}^{+0.005}$ ${1.040}_{-0.003}^{+0.003}$ ${0.991}_{-0.004}^{+0.003}$ 11n12 (11n12) ${12}_{-1}^{+1}$ ${2.2}_{-0.6}^{+0.6}$ ${5.1}_{-0.5}^{+0.4}$ ${2.2}_{-0.4}^{+0.3}$ 0101 (0101) 1n12 (1n12) ${1.0}_{-0.0}^{+1.0}$ int-g
PSO J039.6–21 ${1.17}_{-0.02}^{+0.02}$ ${1.05}_{-0.02}^{+0.02}$ ${1.06}_{-0.01}^{+0.01}$ ${1.068}_{-0.009}^{+0.008}$ ${0.91}_{-0.02}^{+0.01}$ 1n021 (1n02?) 1021 (102?) ${1.0}_{-0.5}^{+0.0}$ int-g
PSO J167.1+68 ${1.214}_{-0.009}^{+0.008}$ ${1.120}_{-0.008}^{+0.009}$ ${1.245}_{-0.005}^{+0.005}$ ${1.100}_{-0.003}^{+0.003}$ ${0.942}_{-0.002}^{+0.002}$ 11211 (11211) ${8.9}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}$ ${5.6}_{-0.3}^{+0.3}$ ${7.0}_{-0.3}^{+0.3}$ ${4.3}_{-0.2}^{+0.2}$ 1111 (1111) 1211 (1211) ${1.0}_{-0.0}^{+0.0}$ int-g
PSO J232.2+63 ${1.129}_{-0.002}^{+0.002}$ ${1.114}_{-0.003}^{+0.003}$ ${1.057}_{-0.0016}^{+0.0018}$ ${0.960}_{-0.001}^{+0.001}$ ${1.065}_{-0.001}^{+0.001}$ 11n10 (11n10) ${9.8}_{-0.3}^{+0.3}$ ${2.8}_{-0.15}^{+0.15}$ ${5.0}_{-0.13}^{+0.13}$ ${2.6}_{-0.12}^{+0.12}$ 1112 (1112) 1n10 (1n10) ${1.0}_{-0.0}^{+0.0}$ int-g
PSO J236.8–16 ${1.156}_{-0.016}^{+0.017}$ ${1.078}_{-0.013}^{+0.013}$ ${1.077}_{-0.011}^{+0.010}$ ${0.943}_{-0.008}^{+0.008}$ 1nn11 (1nn11) 1n11 (1n??) ${1.0}_{-0.0}^{+0.0}$ int-g
PSO J292.9–06 ${1.104}_{-0.004}^{+0.005}$ ${1.013}_{-0.008}^{+0.008}$ ${1.042}_{-0.004}^{+0.004}$ ${0.984}_{-0.004}^{+0.004}$ ${1.068}_{-0.004}^{+0.004}$ 1nn01 (1nn0?) 1n01 (1n0?) ${1.0}_{-1.0}^{+0.0}$ int-g
PSO J306.0+16 ${1.324}_{-0.019}^{+0.02}$ ${1.116}_{-0.010}^{+0.011}$ ${0.900}_{-0.006}^{+0.006}$ ${1.125}_{-0.008}^{+0.009}$ 0n110 (0n110) 0101 (010?) ${0.5}_{-0.0}^{+0.5}$ int-g?
PSO J318.4+35 ${1.16}_{-0.02}^{+0.02}$ ${1.18}_{-0.01}^{+0.01}$ ${1.10}_{-0.006}^{+0.006}$ ${0.934}_{-0.005}^{+0.006}$ 1n111 (1n111) 1111 (1111) ${1.0}_{-0.0}^{+0.0}$ int-g
PSO J334.2+28 ${1.21}_{-0.06}^{+0.07}$ ${1.10}_{-0.02}^{+0.02}$ ${0.926}_{-0.007}^{+0.008}$ ${1.106}_{-0.009}^{+0.009}$ n1111 (n1111) 10.9 ± 0.9 −1.5 ± 4.5 7.5 ± 2.5 6.6 ± 0.7 1211 (021?) 1111 (111?) ${1.0}_{-0.0}^{+0.0}$ int-g
PSO J351.3–11 ${1.05}_{-0.01}^{+0.01}$ ${1.06}_{-0.01}^{+0.02}$ ${1.033}_{-0.008}^{+0.009}$ ${1.043}_{-0.004}^{+0.004}$ ${0.968}_{-0.006}^{+0.006}$ 21n10 (21n10) ${8}_{-2}^{+2}$ ${0.6}_{-0.8}^{+0.8}$ ${3.0}_{-0.7}^{+0.7}$ ${2.0}_{-0.6}^{+0.6}$ 1212 (1212) 2n20 (2n20) ${1.0}_{-0.0}^{+1.0}$ int-g
PSO J358.5+22 ${1.36}_{-0.05}^{+0.07}$ ${1.13}_{-0.02}^{+0.03}$ ${1.13}_{-0.014}^{+0.010}$ ${0.920}_{-0.015}^{+0.010}$ 0n111 (0n1??) 0111 (01??) ${0.5}_{-0.0}^{+0.5}$ int-g?

Notes.

aScores in parentheses are the scores determined with the Allers & Liu (2013) classification scheme. Objects with index values corresponding to int-g but within 1σ of the fld-g value are classified with a score of ?. bThe overall gravity classification value and the 68% confidence limits calculated using our modified version of the Allers & Liu (2013) classification scheme (Section 5). cAlthough classified as fld-g, the spectral indices show hints of int-g.

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5.2. PS1 Parallaxes, Photometric Distances, and Absolute Magnitudes

PS1 has observed the field of each target repeatedly over several years, allowing us to measure the parallax and proper motions of our targets using relative astrometry techniques. We use the image calibrations calculated by the standard Pan-STARRS analysis, but we re-fit the parallax and proper motions for each object with our own re-analysis of these calibrated coordinates (E. A. Magnier et al. 2016, in preparation).

The standard astrometric analysis of the PS1 images uses a set of low-order polynomial transformations to correct for the distortion introduced by the optical system and the atmosphere, along with individual corrections for each of the 60 CCDs. The camera-level polynomials are of the form $\sum \;{a}_{i,j}{x}^{i}{y}^{j}$ with i + j ≤ 3. The individual chip corrections consist of a linear transformation (to account for the chip location and rotation) plus a grid of fine corrections across the chip, with up to 6 × 6 correction cells per chip. The astrometric transformations are determined by an iterative calculation to minimize the scatter of the adopted reference stars in the database. Mean per-epoch residuals for moderately bright stars range from 10 to 25 mas depending on the Galactic latitude: regions of higher stellar density allow for a better correction.

The standard astrometry analysis also fits each star for proper motion and parallax, but it does not currently use a sufficiently robust outlier rejection scheme. We have specifically re-fitted the proper motion and parallax for our targets with a more stringent rejection of outliers. We first reject any detection with flags indicating failures in the photometry analysis, as well as any detections with insufficient coverage of unmasked pixels (psf_qf < 0.85). We use 100 bootstrap resamples of the data set to measure the parallax and proper motion of the object. For each of these samples we then measure the distance of each point from the fitted path on the sky, scaled by the position errors. Detections that are more than 5σ from the path in more than 50% of the samples are marked as outliers and excluded from the final fit. We also use 1000 bootstrap resample tests of the remaining points to determine the errors on the fitted parameters.

Using our custom astrometry analysis, we have determined parallaxes for eight of our objects and one of the previously known substellar candidate AB Dor members, 2MASS J0058425–0651239 (Gagné et al. 2015b). We show the final fits in Figures 15 and 16. In Figure 17 we plot the fitted parallax motion with the data and the residuals. Our parallaxes are tabulated in Table 1 (for our new candidate members only) and in Table 5.

Figure 15.

Figure 15. PS1 parallax motion and the motion in both R.A. and decl. for PSO J035.8–15 (top left), PSO J039.6–21 (top right), PSO J167.1+68 (bottom left), and PSO J232.3–63 (bottom right). The different color symbols correspond to the filter used to determine the astrometric position for ${g}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ (blue), ${r}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ (green), ${i}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ (orange), ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ (purple), ${y}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ (red), and 2MASS (gray). The crosses denote points rejected as outliers during the astrometric fit. The thick gray line denotes the best fit where the object is moving from the light–dark gray over time.

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Figure 16.

Figure 16. PS1 parallax motion and the motion in both R.A. and decl. for PSO J236.8–16 (top left), PSO J318.4+35 (top right), PSO J351.3–11 (middle left), PSO J358.5+22 (middle right), and the previously identified candidate member, 2MASS J0058–06 (bottom left). The colors and symbols are the same as in Figure 15.

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Figure 17.

Figure 17. PS1 R.A. and decl. motion with the best fit overplotted in gray in the top two panels of each plot with the residuals in the bottom panel. In order from top left to bottom right, our objects are PSO J035.8–15, PSO J039.6–21, PSO J167.1+68, PSO J236.8–16, PSO J318.4+35, PSO J351.3–11, PSO J358.5+22, and 2MASS J0058–06. The colors and symbols are the same as in Figure 15 except that open circles and filled circles correspond to R.A. and decl. positions, respectively.

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Table 5.  Substellar Members of the AB Dor Moving Group

Name SpT Gravity ${\mu }_{\alpha }\mathrm{cos}\delta ,{\mu }_{\delta }$ π dphota RV BANYAN II Web BANYAN II Refb
               
    (NIRc) (mas yr−1) (mas) (pc) (km s−1) kinematics kinematics+SED  
               
              PAB Dor a,d Pothers a,d ${P}_{\mathrm{AB}\mathrm{Dor}}$ a,e Pothers a,e  
Bona Fide Membersf
CD-35 2722B L3 int-g −4.6 ± 1.9, −59.8 ± 1.6 47 ± 3 31.4 ± 1.0 (1), (2)
2MASS 14252798–3650229 L4 int-g −268 ± 15, −47.3 ± 19 111 ± 12 5.37 ± 0.256 (3), (4), (5)
2MASS 03552337+1133437 L3 vl-g 218 ± 5, −626 ± 5, 109.6 ± 1.3 11.92 ± 0.22 (6), (7)
WISEP J00470106+680352 L6 int-g 381 ± 12, −212 ± 12 82 ± 3 −20 ± 1.4 (8)
SDSS J11101001+0116131 T5.5 low −217.1 ± 0.7, −280.9 ± 0.6 52.1 ± 12 7.5 ± 3.8 97% (9), (4)
Strong Candidate Membersg
2MASS J00012171+1535355 L4 int-g, [β] 129 ± 4, −177 ± 7 28 ± 6 98% 97% (5), (10)
2MASS J00584253–0651239 L1 int-g, [β] 138 ± 4, −123 ± 4 31.4 ± 2.5 29 ± 6 95% 64% 34% β Pic (5), (12)
GU Psc bh T3.5 low 98 ± 15, −92 ± 15 47 ± 9 −1.6 ± 0.4 56% 11% β Pic 88% 12% β Pic (11)
PSO J039.6352–21.7746 L2.6 int-g 95.5 ± 1.5, −150.4 ± 4.3 27.0 ± 5.4 26 ± 5 93% (12)
2MASS J03164512–2848521 L1 int-g, [β] 98 ± 4, −99 ± 7 33 ± 7 97% 97% (5)
2MASS J03264225–2102057i L5 fld-g [β/γ] 93 ± 6, −135 ± 6 26 ± 5 98% 99% (5), (10)
PSO J318.4243+35.1277 L0.9 int-g 109.0 ± 1.9, −71.5 ± 1.6 27.9 ± 3.6 29 ± 9 88% (12)
2MASS J22064498–4217208 L3 vl-g, [γ] 132.6 ± 4.8, −187.7 ± 9.3 36 ± 7 92% 99% (5), (10)
2MASS J22443167+2043433j L6.5 low 242.6 ± 7.3, −219.6 ± 7.1 24 ± 8 95% 3% β Pic 99.6% 10
PSO J358.5527+22.1393 L1.9 int-g? 97.0 ± 2.1, −88.3 ± 1.9 22.9 ± 3.7 38 ± 8 79% (12)
Possible Candidate Membersk
2MASS J00192626+4614078 M8 int-g, [β] 125 ± 4, −75 ± 4 18 ± 5 (36 ± 10) <0.1% (60%) 67% (9%) β Pic 53% (5)
2MASS J00425923+1142104 M9 int-g, [β] 92.7 ± 10.0, −75 ± 9 40 ± 8 (81 ± 16) 1% (<0.1%) 75% (<0.1%) β Pic 13% 6% β Pic (5)
2MASS J06322402–5010349 L3 [[β]] −96.3 ± 4.2, 9.1 ± 6.7 28 ± 6 0.2% 30% (5)
2MASS J06420559+4101599 L/T pec −4.8 ± 4.9, −370.5 ± 8.5 l 49% 10
2MASS J08034469+0827000 M6 int-g, [β] −72 ± 3, −201 ± 5 20 ± 4 (40 ± 8) 17% (7%) 69% (<0.1%) CAR 91% (5)
PSO J232.2915+63.2151 M7.8 int-g, [β] −125.6 ± 3.4, 32.5 ± 3.4 35.5 ± 4.2 11 ± 3 37% 25% (5), (12)
PSO J292.9372–06.3469 M7.6 int-g 21 ± 3, −106 ± 3 39 ± 8 (80 ± 20) 7% (0%) 3% β Pic (12)
PSO J306.0126+16.7969 L2.3 int-g? 64 ± 4, −83 ± 6 40 ± 8 43% (12)
2MASS J20391314–1126531 M7 int-g, [β] 54 ± 3, −100 ± 4 45 ± 9 (92 ± 20) 17% (<0.1%) 5% (<0.1%) β Pic 2% (5)
2MASS J21572060+8340575 M9 [[γ]] 116.2 ± 1.3, 46 ± 9 29 ± 6 (58 ± 18) 53% (<0.1%) 31% (5)
PSO J334.2624+28.9438 L3.5 int-g 77 ± 27, −53 ± 11 59 ± 12 0.6% (12)
PSO J351.3434–11.3514 M6.5 int-g 148.8 ± 2.3, −132.3 ± 1.9 22.1 ± 6.5 44 ± 10 50% (12)
2MASS J23255604–0259508 L1 int-g, [γ] 85 ± 6, −106 ± 4 63 ± 13 3% 73% (5), (10)
2MASS J23360735–3541489 M9 vl-g, [β] 70 ± 8, −80.7 ± 10.0 39 ± 8 (79 ± 16) 0.2% (<0.1%) 97% (<0.1%) THA 60% 39% THA (5)
2MASS J23433470–3646021 L3–L6 vl-g, [γ] 97 ± 6, −109.4 ± 10.1 40 ± 16 52% 30% THA 46% 38% βPic, 16% THA (5)
2MASS J23520507–1100435 M8 int-g, [β] 100 ± 4, −121 ± 4 20 ± 7 (42 ± 15) 0.1% (82%) 95% (5%) β Pic 91% (5), (10)
2MASS J23532556–1844402A M6.5 vl-g, [γ] 90 ± 3, −78 ± 3 15 ± 3 (30 ± 6) <0.1% (<0.1%) <0.1% (90%) β Pic 20% 46% THA, 34% β Pic (5)
Probable Young Field Interlopersm
PSO J004.7818+41.0231 L0.1 fld-g 101 ± 4, −133 ± 1 27 ± 4 19% 47% β Pic (12)
PSO J035.8683–15.1937n M7.1 int-g 135.1 ± 1.9, −137.7 ± 2.4 18.3 ± 3.7 44 ± 14 49% (12)
PSO J167.1260+68.5039 L1.8 int-g, [γ] −221.9 ± 3.1, −193.7 ± 3.9 46.1 ± 6.5 14 ± 3 −9.8 ± 0.1 0.2% 6% CAR (5), (12)
PSO J236.7729–16.4422 M9.4 int-g, [β] −70.1 ± 1.5, −148.9 ± 3.7 36.6 ± 4.1 26 ± 6 0.3% 11% (5), (12)

Notes.

aProperties in parentheses are calculated assuming that the object is overluminous compared with the field sequence by 1.5 mag. This reflects the systematic uncertainty in the photometric distances for our late M dwarf candidates (Section 5.2). bTable references: (1) Wahhaj et al. (2011), (2) Shkolnik et al. (2012), (3) Blake et al. (2010), (4) Dupuy & Liu 2012, (5) Gagné et al. (2015b), (6) Liu et al. (2013a), (7) Faherty et al. (2013), (8) Gizis et al. (2015), (9) Gagné et al. (2015a), (10) Gagné et al. (2014), (11) Naud et al. (2014), (12) this paper. cThe NIR gravity classification system used is from Allers & Liu (2013). Gravity classifications in single brackets are visual classifications using NIR spectra by Gagné et al. (2015b). For objects without NIR spectra, we note the visual gravity classifications from optical spectra by Gagné et al. (2015b) in double brackets. dProbability based on the BANYAN II web tool, which only uses the kinematic information to calculate membership probability. Membership for other significant groups is included. eProbability from BANYAN II using kinematic and photometric information from Gagné et al. (2015b, 2015c). The membership probability is the probability of being a young moving group member (with the most likely group being the AB Dor Moving Group), not necessarily of only the AB Dor Moving Group. fBona fide members have parallaxes, radial velocities, and spectroscopically confirmed low gravity. gObjects with membership probability as determined by the BANYAN II web tool of at least 75% and spectroscopically confirmed low gravity. hGU Psc b is a widely accepted strong candidate to the AB Dor Moving Group. i2MASS J03264225–2102057 has discrepant NIR gravity classifications of β/γ (visual) and fld-g (Allers & Liu [2013] indices) from Gagné et al. (2015b). Thus, because there are visual signs of youth and the membership probability is high, we still consider it to be a strong candidate member. jCFHT parallax for this object (M. C. Liu et al. 2016, in preparation) also suggests that it is a strong candidate member. kObjects with membership probability as determined by the BANYAN II web tool of 15%–75% or UVWXYZ positions consistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership. lWe did not compute a photometric distance because the object is very peculiar; thus, any photometric distance would likely be inaccurate. mWe consider objects with BANYAN II membership probabilities <15% and UVWXYZ positions inconsistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership to be likely field interlopers. nWe consider PSO J035.8–15 as a likely field interloper because its UVWXYZ positions are inconsistent with membership (Section 5.6).

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We also calculated photometric distances for all of our objects (Table 1). We used the average 2MASS J-band absolute magnitudes as a function of spectral type tabulated by Dupuy & Liu (2012) to determine photometric distances from our NIR spectral types and J apparent magnitude. While Dupuy & Liu (2012) also provide polynomial relations between spectral type and absolute magnitude, these relations have a larger dispersion compared to their tabulated averages because the spectral type range (M6–T9) spanned by the polynomials is much larger than the range for our objects (M6–L4). Therefore, using the average absolute magnitudes as a function of spectral type is more accurate than using the polynomial relation for our purposes. We assume that the photometric distance uncertainty is 20%, in accord with Dupuy & Liu (2012).

Because young late M dwarfs can be overluminous compared with their older counterparts (e.g., Liu et al. 2013a), we allow their absolute magnitudes to be up to 1.5 mag brighter than the field value since we do not know the ages of our objects. For our late M dwarfs, we calculate two values for the photometric distance, one using the field absolute magnitudes and one brighter by 1.5 mag. However, young early L dwarfs have absolute magnitudes consistent with those of their older counterparts (e.g., Liu et al. 2013a). Therefore, for our L dwarfs we use the field value when converting from spectral type to absolute magnitude. Thus, the uncertainty in the photometric distance for our M dwarfs is significantly larger than for our L dwarfs.

Figure 18 shows the resulting color–magnitude diagram for our objects compared to previously known young and field objects. For our objects, we synthesized MKO magnitudes in order to compare with field dwarfs because of the larger amount of MKO photometry available for young companions and the Pleiades objects. When synthesizing photometry, we used the 2MASS (Skrutskie et al. 2006)6 and MKO (Tokunaga et al. 2002) filter profiles and used the 2MASS photometry for flux calibration. We then compared our candidates (Table 6) against known Pleiades members (e.g., Lodieu et al. 2007; Bihain et al. 2010), whose age (125 Myr; e.g., Basri et al. 1996; Martín et al. 1998) is similar to that of the AB Dor Moving Group. In addition, we compared our objects to field dwarfs and young substellar companions based on the compilation by Dupuy & Liu (2012). Our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members have NIR absolute magnitudes and colors consistent with the Pleiades sequence, as expected given the similar ages of the two stellar associations. (Although by construction the NIR absolute magnitudes, for objects without parallaxes, should be consistent with their ages, the NIR colors would not necessarily be the same for our candidates as for other objects with the same age and absolute magnitude.)

Figure 18.

Figure 18. NIR JK color and absolute J magnitude of our candidate AB Dor Moving Group substellar members (red stars), field dwarfs (gray symbols), and known young brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects (colored circles). Our objects are numbered the same as in Figure 5: (1) PSO J004.7+41, (2) PSO J035.8–15, (3) PSO J039.6–21, (4) PSO J167.1+68, (5) PSO J232.2+63, (6) PSO J236.8–16, (7) PSO J292.9–06, (8) PSO J306.0+16, (9) PSO J318.4+35, (10) PSO J334.2+28, (11) PSO J351.3–11, (12) PSO J358.5+22. We use the compilation of known objects from Dupuy & Liu (2012) for photometry and parallaxes of the field objects and for CD-35 2722 B, 2MASS J0355+11, and 2M1207 b. Photometric data are taken from the literature for TWA 5 B (Weinberger et al. 2013), HD 1060 B (Nielsen et al. 2012), HR 6037 Bab (Nielsen et al. 2013), 2MASS J0103–55 ABb (Delorme et al. 2013), AB Pic b (Biller et al. 2013), κ And b (Carson et al. 2013; Bonnefoy et al. 2014), β Pic b (Bonnefoy et al. 2013), 2MASS J0122–24 B LP 261-75 B (Reid & Walkowicz 2006; Bowler et al. 2013), WISEP J0047+68 (Gizis et al. 2015), PSO J318.5–22 (Liu et al. 2013b), HN Peg B (Luhman et al. 2007), SDSS J1110+01 (Gagné et al. 2015a), Ross 458 C (Burningham et al. 2011), VHS 1256 b (Gauza et al. 2015), and the HR 8799 planets (Marois et al. 2008). All photometry for previously known objects is on the MKO system. We synthesized MKO photometry for our candidates from the NIR spectra. Known Pleiades members (green circles) trace out the isochrones for an age of ≈125 Myr (Lodieu et al. 2007; Bihain et al. 2010). The AB Dor Moving Group is ≈125 Myr old. For our candidate without a parallax, we use photometric distances calculated using the relations from Dupuy & Liu (2012) and assume a photometric distance uncertainty of 20% (Section 5.2).

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Table 6.  Synthesized Photometrya

Name JMKO HMKO KMKO
  (mag) (mag) (mag)
PSO J004.7+41 14.150 ± 0.009 13.539 ± 0.007 13.056 ± 0.007
PSO J035.8–15 13.75 ± 0.01 13.32 ± 0.01 12.92 ± 0.01
PSO J039.6–21 14.73 ± 0.04 14.24 ± 0.05 13.68 ± 0.05
PSO J167.1+68 13.044 ± 0.009 12.295 ± 0.006 11.57 ± 0.005
PSO J232+63 11.534 ± 0.003 10.992 ± 0.003 10.538 ± 0.003
PSO J236.8–16 13.81 ± 0.02 13.237 ± 0.014 12.708 ± 0.017
PSO J292–06 13.837 ± 0.011 13.296 ± 0.009 12.830 ± 0.009
PSO J306+16 15.57 ± 0.03 14.657 ± 0.020 13.823 ± 0.016
PSO J318.4+35 14.23 ± 0.02 13.47 ± 0.02 12.77 ± 0.02
PSO J334+28 16.737 ± 0.008 15.821 ± 0.005 15.010 ± 0.003
PSO J351.3–11 13.59 ± 0.01 13.09 ± 0.01 12.67 ± 0.01
PSO J358.5+22 15.26 ± 0.04 14.62 ± 0.04 14.02 ± 0.04
 

Note.

aMKO magnitudes are synthesized from our NIR spectra (Section 5).

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5.3. AB Dor Moving Group Membership

We assessed our candidates' membership in the AB Dor Moving Group using the BANYAN II web tool (Malo et al. 2013; Gagné et al. 2014), which calculates membership probabilities for objects using Bayesian inference and the proper motion, sky coordinates, and parallactic (or photometric) distance (Section 5.2). In addition, because our objects have spectral signatures of youth, we could improve the accuracy of the BANYAN-II membership probabilities by only using a young (<1 Gyr) field population to determine the field membership probability. Although the BANYAN II web tool analysis (which uses kinematics only) is different from the full BANYAN II analysis (Gagné et al. [2014] incorporate kinematics and photometry), we have used their field contamination rate curves to approximate the membership quality of our candidates. These field contamination curves suggest that objects (with distances but no radial velocities) with BANYAN II membership probabilities of ≳15%, ≈15%–75%, and ≳75% would have field contamination rates of ≳50%, ≈50%–10%, and ≳10%, respectively. Also, we note that bona fide members (i.e., members with signatures of youth, proper motions, RVs, and parallaxes) can have BANYAN II membership probabilities from 10% to 95% (Gagné et al. 2015c). Therefore, we have roughly divided our sample into three bins based on their BANYAN II web tool memberships, with a few exceptions (Section 5.6): strong candidates (≥75%), possible candidates (15%–75%), and probable young field interlopers (<15%).

The BANYAN II web tool also computes statistical distances, i.e., the most probable distance if an object were a member of a given moving group (in this case, the AB Dor Moving Group). We tabulate these distances in Table 1. We compared both the statistical distance and the dkin with the parallactic (or photometric for objects without parallaxes) distances for all of our objects. The statistical distances are consistent within 2σ with the parallactic (or photometric) distances for all of our objects except PSO J035.8–15, where the large difference (3σ) between the statistical and parallactic distances suggests that it is a probable young field interloper. For all of our objects, except PSO J236.8–16, the dkin is consistent within 2σ with the parallactic (or photometric) distance (Figure 19). The discrepancy between the parallactic distance and dkin for PSO J236.8–16 is consistent with it having a low AB Dor Moving Group membership probability and being a probable young field interloper. We also note that the statistical distances are consistent within 2σ of the dkin for all objects.

Figure 19.

Figure 19. The kinematic distances (dkin) of our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members compared with their photometric distances (dphot) in purple squares and parallactic distances (dπ) as red triangles. The open purple squares are the dphot calculated assuming that the object is overluminous compared with the field sequence by 1.5 mag, which reflects the systematic uncertainty in the photometric distances for young late M dwarfs. Our objects are numbered as in Figure 5: (1) PSO J004.7+41, (2) PSO J035.8–15, (3) PSO J039.6–21, (4) PSO J167.1+68, (5) PSO J232.2+63, (6) PSO J236.8–16, (7) PSO J292.9–06, (8) PSO J306.0+16, (9) PSO J318.4+35, (10) PSO J334.2+28, (11) PSO J351.3–11, (12) PSO J358.5+22. Eight of our objects (except PSO J004.7+41, PSO J292.9–06, PSO J306.0+16, PSO J318.4+35, and PSO J334.2+28) have parallactic distances from PS1. Seven of our objects have parallaxes that are consistent with their dkin, the distance they would have if they were AB Dor members.

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As another way of assessing membership, we compared the θ for our objects with the θ for the known members (see Section 3, Figure 1). All of our objects have θ under 15°, which is consistent with the known members.

We also compared the heliocentric kinematics (UVW) and space positions (XYZ) of our AB Dor Moving Group candidates in Figures 2031 with the YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) with membership probabilities of at least 75%. For the plotted YMG members, we used radial velocities and parallaxes with values from the literature. For our candidates, we assumed a probable RV range of −20 to +20 km s−1, consistent with the range of the bona fide YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) plotted. Eight of our candidates' positions are consistent within 2σ of the average positions of the known AB Dor members within their uncertainties. Note that 3 km s−1 is the uncertainty in the mean UVW position for the group given the uncertainties in each coordinate (≈1–2 km s−1) and that the spatial positions (XYZ) of the known members are more spread out in comparison to the UVW positions (10–50 pc encompasses the 1σ distance range). However, PSO J004.7+41, PSO J035.8–15, PSO J167.1+68, and PSO J236.8–16 have UVW positions inconsistent with AB Dor membership. We tabulate the distance between the mean group UVW and XYZ positions and the closest possible positions of our candidates (within the assumed RV range) in Table 1.

Figure 20.

Figure 20. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J004.7+41 compared with the kinematics and positions of YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) with membership probabilities of at least 75%. We have used RVs and parallaxes from the literature for objects that had no measured values in Torres et al. (2008). The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in photometric distance and proper motion.

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Figure 21.

Figure 21. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J035.8–15 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in photometric distance and proper motion.

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Figure 22.

Figure 22. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J039.6–21 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in parallax and proper motion.

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Figure 23.

Figure 23. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J167.1+68 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The error bars are due to uncertainties in parallax, radial velocity, and proper motion.

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Figure 24.

Figure 24. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J232.2+63 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in parallax and proper motion.

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Figure 25.

Figure 25. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J236.8–16 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in parallax and proper motion.

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Figure 26.

Figure 26. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J292.9–06 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in photometric distance and proper motion.

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Figure 27.

Figure 27. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J306.0+16 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in photometric distance and proper motion.

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Figure 28.

Figure 28. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J318.4+35 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in parallax and proper motion.

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Figure 29.

Figure 29. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J334.2+28 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in photometric distance and proper motion.

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Figure 30.

Figure 30. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J351.3–11 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in parallax and proper motion.

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Figure 31.

Figure 31. The heliocentric space velocity (UVW) and positions (XYZ) of PSO J358.5+22 compared with the kinematics and positions of known YMG members from Torres et al. (2008) as in Figure 20. The red lines show the UVW range for an RV between −20 and 20 km s−1, reasonable for young objects (i.e., the RV range for young objects in Torres et al. 2008). The error bars are due to uncertainties in parallax and proper motion.

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In total, we have three strong candidates, five possible candidates, and four probable young field interlopers. We summarize the final BANYAN II web tool membership probabilities in Table 1, and the BANYAN II web tool and Gagné et al. (2015b, 2015c) membership probabilities, when available, in Table 5. However, these probabilities are likely a lower limit on the actual membership probabilities because our candidates are ≈125 Myr, the age of the AB Dor Moving Group, much younger than the 1 Gyr old field population used in the BANYAN II web tool.

5.4. Physical Properties

We calculated the bolometric magnitudes, effective temperatures, and masses for our AB Dor Moving Group candidate members, the previously known bona fide substellar members, and candidate substellar members with spectroscopically confirmed youth (Table 7). For all of these properties, we used a Monte Carlo simulation to propagate measurement errors (in distance, spectral type, and age) and determine the 68% confidence limits for each calculated parameter.

Table 7.  Physical Properties

Name Mbol Mass Teff
  (mag) (MJup) (K)
Our AB Dor Moving Group Candidates
PSO J004.7+41 [14.1 ± 0.4] [40${}_{-13}^{+11}{\rm{]}}$ [1950${}_{-200}^{+200}{\rm{]}}$
PSO J035.8–15 12.1 ± 0.7 ${80}_{-30}^{+40}$ ${2700}_{-400}^{+300}$
PSO J039.6–21 14.1 ± 0.4 ${37}_{-5}^{+5}$ ${1950}_{-150}^{+130}$
PSO J167.1+68 13.3 ± 0.2 ${52}_{-16}^{+14}$ ${2300}_{-190}^{+150}$
PSO J232.2+63 11.3 ± 0.2 ${130}_{-40}^{+20}$ ${3050}_{-150}^{+80}$
PSO J236.8–16 13.7 ± 0.3 ${44}_{-15}^{+12}$ ${2090}_{-180}^{+160}$
PSO J292.9–06 [12.9 ± 0.4 (11.4 ± 0.5)] [55${}_{-9}^{+11}$ (110${}_{-30}^{+30}$)] [2450${}_{-200}^{+180}$ (3000${}_{-170}^{+120}$)]
PSO J306.0+16 [14.3 ± 0.5] [34${}_{-6}^{+5}{\rm{]}}$ [1850${}_{-190}^{+170}{\rm{]}}$
PSO J318.4+35 13.4 ± 0.2 ${45}_{-5}^{+5}$ ${2220}_{-110}^{+110}$
PSO J334.2+28 [14.6 ± 0.5] [31${}_{-5}^{+6}{\rm{]}}$ [1740${}_{-180}^{+180}{\rm{]}}$
PSO J351.3–11 12.3 ± 1.4 ${70}_{-30}^{+50}$ ${2700}_{-700}^{+400}$
PSO J358.5+22 14.1 ± 0.4 ${36}_{-6}^{+5}$ ${1930}_{-170}^{+140}$
Bona Fide Members
CD-35 2722B 13.7 ± 0.3 ${40}_{-4}^{+4}$ ${2090}_{-80}^{+80}$
WISEP J00470106+680352 15.7 ± 0.2 ${20}_{-7}^{+3}$ ${1340}_{-40}^{+40}$
2MASS J03552337+1133437 15.4 ± 0.2 ${23}_{-5}^{+2}$ ${1430}_{-40}^{+40}$
2MASS J14252798–3650229 15.4 ± 0.4 ${22}_{-8}^{+3}$ ${1420}_{-100}^{+80}$
SDSS J11101001+0116131a 17.30 ±  0.05 10–12 940 ± 20
Previously Identified Candidates
2MASS J00011217+1535355 [14.9 ± 0.5] [28${}_{-4}^{+5}{\rm{]}}$ [1630${}_{-150}^{+160}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J00192626+4614078 [13.2 ± 0.6 (11.7 ± 0.6)] [49${}_{-11}^{+12}$ (90${}_{-30}^{+30}$)] [2300${}_{-300}^{+200}$ (2890${}_{-200}^{+190}$)]
2MASS J00425923+1142104 [13.7 ± 0.5 (12.2 ± 0.3)] [41${}_{-7}^{+7}$ (72${}_{-11}^{+13}$)] [2090${}_{-200}^{+180}$ (2720${}_{-150}^{+110}$)]
2MASS J00584253–0651239 13.9 ± 0.5 ${39}_{-7}^{+7}$ ${2040}_{-200}^{+180}$
Gu Psc b [16.9 ± 0.3] [11.9${}_{-1.5}^{+2}{\rm{]}}$ [1060${}_{-110}^{+100}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J03164512–2848521 [13.9 ± 0.5] [38${}_{-7}^{+6}{\rm{]}}$ [2010${}_{-200}^{+180}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J03264225–2102057 [14.9 ± 0.5] [28${}_{-5}^{+4}{\rm{]}}$ [1610${}_{-190}^{+150}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J06322402–5010349 [14.5 ± 0.5] [31${}_{-5}^{+5}{\rm{]}}$ [1750${}_{-180}^{+180}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J06420559+4101599b [11–12]
2MASS J08034469+0827000 [12.4 ± 0.5 (10.8 ± 0.5)] [67${}_{-13}^{+15}$ (150${}_{-30}^{+30}$)] [2650${}_{-200}^{+160}$ (3160${}_{-110}^{+70}$)]
2MASS J15291017+6312539 [13.2 ± 0.6 (11.7 ± 0.6)] [50${}_{-11}^{+12}$ (100${}_{-30}^{+30}$)] [2300${}_{-300}^{+200}$ (2910${}_{-200}^{+180}$)]
2MASS J20391314–1126531 [12.4 ± 0.6 (10.9 ± 0.5)] [67${}_{-15}^{+17}$ (150${}_{-40}^{+30}$)] [2660${}_{-300}^{+160}$ (3150${}_{-190}^{+80}$)]
2MASS J21572060+8340575 [13.5 ± 0.5 (12.0 ± 0.3)] [44${}_{-7}^{+7}$ (81${}_{-13}^{+15}$)] [2190${}_{-200}^{+150}$ (2800${}_{-120}^{+100}$)]
2MASS J22064498–4217208 [14.4 ± 0.5] [32${}_{-6}^{+6}{\rm{]}}$ [1810${}_{-190}^{+180}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J22443167+2043433 [22.0 ± 0.5] [22${}_{-9}^{+4}{\rm{]}}$ [1380${}_{-150}^{+150}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J23255604–0259508 [13.7 ± 0.5] [41${}_{-7}^{+8}{\rm{]}}$ [2110${}_{-200}^{+180}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J23360735–3541489 [13.6 ± 0.5 (12.1 ± 0.3)] [42${}_{-6}^{+8}$ (78${}_{-12}^{+14}$)] [2140${}_{-180}^{+180}$ (2770${}_{-120}^{+90}$)]
2MASS J23433470–3646021 [14.1 ± 0.9] [37${}_{-8}^{+9}{\rm{]}}$ [1950${}_{-310}^{+280}{\rm{]}}$
2MASS J23520507–1100435 [13.3 ± 0.6 (11.8 ± 0.6)] [47${}_{-12}^{+12}$ (90${}_{-30}^{+30}$)] [2280${}_{-310}^{+240}$ (2880${}_{-200}^{+190}$)]
2MASS J23532556–1844402 [12.4 ± 0.5 (10.8 ± 0.5)] [68${}_{-14}^{+16}$ (150${}_{-40}^{+30}$)] [2660${}_{-200}^{+160}$ (3170${}_{-160}^{+60}$)]

Notes. Properties in parentheses are calculated assuming that the object is overluminous compared with the field sequence by 1.5 mag. This reflects the systematic uncertainty in the photometric distances for our late M dwarf candidates. Properties in brackets are calculated using photometric distances for objects where no parallax was available.

aProperties from Gagné et al. (2015a). bBecause of the spectral peculiarities, this object is classified only as an L/T dwarf and does not have a precise spectral type, and thus we do not estimate the Mbol, mass, or Teff. The mass range estimate is taken from Gagné et al. (2014).

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We use the Liu et al. (2010) H-band bolometric corrections to determine the absolute bolometric magnitude because the H-band corrections have the lowest dispersion and the bolometric correction changes slowly with spectral type. To use these corrections, we used our synthesized MKO H-band magnitudes.

For our objects, we determined Teff and mass from our estimated bolometric luminosities using the Chabrier et al. (2000) evolutionary models. For our analysis, we assume that the age of the AB Dor Moving Group is 125 ± 20 Myr (Luhman et al. 2005; Ortega et al. 2007; Barenfeld et al. 2013) and propagate the uncertainties in age using a Monte Carlo simulation. For our young field interlopers we adopt a more conservative age of 150 ± 100 Myr. Our late M dwarfs PSO J035.8–15, PSO J236.8–16, and PSO J351.3–11 have masses of 50–100 MJup. Our L dwarfs, PSO J004.7+41, PSO J039.6–21, PSO J167.1+68, PSO J318.4+35, and PSO J358.5+22, have masses of ∼35–45 MJup.

5.5. Comparison with BASS

Eight of our new young brown dwarfs are in the very large (∼104 objects) input catalog of color-selected brown dwarfs from the Gagné et al. (2015c) BASS program, an all-sky survey constructed by combining 2MASS and WISE. Three of our new young brown dwarf candidate members, PSO J292.9–06, PSO J306.0+16, and PSO J318.4+35, are missing from the BASS input catalog because their low Galactic latitudes (b = −11fdg9, −11fdg7, and −9fdg3, respectively) excluded them from the BASS search $(| b| \geqslant 15^\circ )$. PSO J334.2+28 is also missing from the BASS input catalog, possibly due to its faint 2MASS magnitudes.

However, none of these eight candidate AB Dor Moving Group members included in the BASS input catalog are in the final Gagné et al. (2015c) catalog of ∼300 high-priority candidate YMG members. In creating this high-priority catalog, Gagné et al. (2015c) used 2MASS+WISE proper motions and a color–magnitude diagram to select candidates that are redder than the field sequence. However, based on our parallactic (or photometric) distances to calculate absolute magnitudes, three of our int-g and one of our fld-g objects in the BASS input catalog (PSO J035.8–15, PSO J039.6–21, PSO J236.8–16, and PSO J004.7+41) are slightly blue compared to other known young objects and are consistent with the field given their spectral type (Figures 32 and 33) and thus could have been rejected from the high-priority catalog.

Figure 32.

Figure 32. WISE W1 − W2 color as a function of NIR spectral type for our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members. Those classified as int-g are the filled red stars, and those as int-g? and fld-g are the open red stars. Our objects are numbered as in Figure 5: (1) PSO J004.7+41, (2) PSO J035.8–15, (3) PSO J039.6–21, (4) PSO J167.1+68, (5) PSO J232.2+63, (6) PSO J236.8–16, (7) PSO J292.9–06, (8) PSO J306.0+16, (9) PSO J318.4+35, (10) PSO J334.2+28, (11) PSO J351.3–11, (12) PSO J358.5+22. The young field dwarfs with int-g gravity classifications from Allers & Liu (2013) are the small open yellow squares, and those with vl-g are the small teal triangles. We also include the Gagné et al. (2015b) int-g (yellow) and vl-g (teal) substellar objects. The mean W1 − W2 color for each spectral type bin and the 68th percentile confidence region are the filled gray circles for old field objects, open yellow squares for int-g objects, and teal triangles for vl-g objects. The mean W1 − W2 colors for each bin are plotted in the middle of the bin (e.g., for spectral type M6–M6.9, the mean color is plotted at M6.5) We note that the slightly blue JK colors of PSO J236.7–16 are likely due to blending from the earlier-type close-by companion (M5; Gagné et al. 2015b). We find that the vl-g dwarfs tend to have redder W1 − W2 colors than the int-g and then fld-g dwarfs. However, the W1 − W2 colors for int-g dwarfs are consistent with their fld-g counterparts within the uncertainties.

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Figure 33.

Figure 33. 2MASS JK color as a function of NIR spectral type for our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members. Those classified as int-g are the filled red stars, and those as int-g? or fld-g are the open red stars. Our objects have the same numbers as in Figure 32. The young field dwarfs with int-g gravity classifications from Allers & Liu (2013) are the small open yellow squares, and those with vl-g are the small teal triangles. We also include the Gagné et al. (2015b) int-g (yellow) and vl-g (teal) substellar objects. The mean JK color for each spectral type bin and the 68th percentile confidence region are the filled gray circles for old field objects, open yellow squares for int-g objects, and teal triangles for vl-g objects. The mean JK colors for each bin are plotted in the middle of the bin (e.g., for spectral type M6–M6.9, the mean color is plotted at M6.5). We note that the slightly blue JK colors of PSO J236.7–16 are likely due to blending from the earlier-type close-by companion (M5; Gagné et al. 2015b). There is no significant difference between the mean JK colors for M6–M9 dwarfs with different gravities (vl-g, int-g, or fld-g). However, for L0–L3 dwarfs, the vl-g objects are redder than the fld-g objects, while the int-g objects have colors redder than their fld-g counterparts but not as extreme as their vl-g counterparts.

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Although our remaining four objects present in the BASS input catalog, PSO J167.1+68, PSO J236.8–16, PSO J232.2+63, and PSO J358.5+22, may have a red enough JK color compared with the model used in the BASS survey, our absolute magnitudes may differ from theirs because we calculate absolute magnitudes from photometric distance (from spectral type), whereas they use the statistical distance from their Bayesian analysis. Thus, the BASS survey may have placed these objects in different locations on a color–magnitude diagram and rejected them as likely young objects in their analysis. Although the 2MASS+WISE proper motion from Gagné et al. (2015c) could also have removed these objects from their high-priority catalog, our PS1+2MASS proper motions are consistent within the uncertainties (Table 1).

Three of our objects present in the BASS input catalog, PSO J167.1+68 (2MASS J11083081+6830169), PSO J232.2+63 (2MASS J15291017+6312539), and PSO J236.8–16 (2MASS J15470557–1626303A), were independently found as candidate moving group members in Gagné et al. (2015b) as part of their less restricted initial search (see Section 5.6 for details). Determining RVs for PSO J236.8–16 and PSO J232.2+63 would be needed for any further membership assessment. We conclude that PSO J167.1+68 is a young field interloper using the literature RV (Blake et al. 2010) and our PS1 parallax (Section 5.6).

5.6. Summary of Properties of Individual Objects

We have determined properties (i.e., spectral type and mass) and assessed the group membership for our 12 objects. We summarize the results in the following paragraphs (see Sections 5.1, 5.35.5, and Table 5 for details).

PSO J004.7+41 is an fld-g, L0.1 dwarf (40${}_{-13}^{+11}$ MJup), with a spectrum that shows hints of youth. However, the UVWXYZ positions are inconsistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership, and the BANYAN II membership is low; thus, we consider it to be a probable young field interloper.

PSO J035.8–15 is an int-g M7.1 dwarf (80${}_{-30}^{+40}$ MJup). Although the UVWXYZ positions for PSO J035–15 are inconsistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership, it has a moderate BANYAN II web tool membership probability (49%). We speculate that the membership probability may be optimistic due to the large distance uncertainty. Thus, we consider this object to be a probable young field interloper.

PSO J039.6–21 is an int-g L2 dwarf (37 ± 5 MJup) with a high membership probability. Its UVWXYZ positions are also consistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership (except U, which is consistent within 2.5σ). However, it appears to be spectroscopically peculiar. When comparing to known field dwarfs, its spectrum matches very well with the blue L2 dwarf 2MASS J1431+14 (Sheppard & Cushing 2009), a candidate subdwarf. We also note that the overall continuum is more blue than both the fld-g and vl-g standards, also indicating spectral peculiarity. Thus, as the Allers & Liu (2013) gravity indices were not intended for use on subdwarfs, the int-g classification may be invalid. However, the kinematics and position appear to be consistent with possible membership with the AB Dor Moving Group. Therefore, we conclude that although membership in the group is possible, it could also be a field L-type subdwarf. Thus a radial velocity is still needed to conclude its group membership, or lack thereof.

PSO J167.1+68 is an int-g L1.8 dwarf (52${}_{-16}^{+14}$ MJup) with Hα emission that was first discovered in Gizis et al. (2000) as an L1 dwarf (optical spectral type). It was also independently identified as a low-probability candidate Carina member in Gagné et al. (2015b). After combining the space positions+kinematics (UVWXYZ; Figure 23), the literature RV (Blake et al. 2010), and our PS1 parallax, we suggest that it is actually unlikely to be a Carina member (BANYAN II web tool probability of zero). As we can completely determine the UVWXYZ positions for this object, we conclude that this object is a young field member.

PSO J232.2+63 is an int-g, M7.8 dwarf (130${}_{-40}^{+20}$ MJup) with a membership probability of 37% and UVWXYZ consistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership. It was also independently discovered as a candidate member by Gagné et al. (2015b). Although they note that it has a high young field contamination probability, they did not have a parallactic distance. Thus, because we have a parallactic distance and the RV is still unknown, we still consider it a possible member. We note that the parallactic distance is significantly closer than the photometric distance, even if we assume that young M dwarfs are more luminous by 1.5 mag than their field counterparts. The high estimated mass, suggesting a stellar rather than substellar object, is likely due to the overluminosity of this object.

PSO J236.7–16 is an int-g M9.4 dwarf (44${}_{-15}^{+12}$ MJup) with a very low membership probability and UVWXYZ positions inconsistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership. It was also independently discovered in Gagné et al. (2015b) as a low-probability member with a high field contamination probability. With the addition of our PS1 parallax to the membership analysis, we conclude that PSO J236.7–16 is a likely young field interloper. We note that Gagné et al. (2015b) also propose that the nearby object 2MASS J15470557–1626303B is a low-gravity stellar companion with a spectral type of M5 ± 2.

PSO J292.9–06 is an int-g M7.6 dwarf (≈55–110 MJup). Although it has a low membership probability, the UVWXYZ positions are consistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership. Thus, we consider it to be a possible member.

PSO J306.0+16 is an int-g? L2.3 dwarf (34${}_{-6}^{+5}$ MJup) with a membership probability of 36% and UVWXYZ consistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership. The spectrum shows hints of youth but may still be an older field object. We consider this object as a possible candidate member, requiring parallax and RV to further assess membership.

PSO J334.2+28 is an int-g L3.5 dwarf (31${}_{5}^{+6}$ MJup) with a low BANYAN II web tool membership probability (0.79%) but with heliocentric kinematics (UVW) and space positions (XYZ) that are consistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership. One possible reason for the low BANYAN II membership probability is that the distance is 59 ± 12 pc, farther than the 1σ distance range of the bona fide members that were used to develop the BANYAN II model. Thus, we still consider this object to be a possible candidate.

PSO J351.3–11 is an int-g M6.5 dwarf (70${}_{-30}^{+50}$ MJup) with a membership probability of 50%. As the UVWXYZ positions are also consistent with AB Dor Moving Group membership, we consider it as a possible member.

PSO J358.5+22 is an int-g? L1.9 dwarf (36${}_{-6}^{+5}$ MJup) with a high membership probability (79%) and UVWXYZ positions consistent with group membership. Thus, we consider it to be a strong candidate member.

6. DISCUSSION

Low-gravity (i.e., young) and dusty field L dwarfs are known to have redder WISE colors (W1 − W2) and NIR colors (JK) compared with their old field counterparts of the same spectral type (e.g., Gizis et al. 2012). Our work sheds light on the colors of these objects at intermediate ages (≈125 Myr) and intermediate gravities (int-g). We compared the W1 − W2 and JK colors of our candidate AB Dor Moving Group members with the mean W1 − W2 and mean JK colors of both young (vl-g and int-g) and old (fld-g) dwarfs (Figures 32 and 33).

The average W1 − W2 colors for vl-g dwarfs tend to be redder than both the fld-g and the int-g dwarfs from Allers & Liu (2013), while the int-g dwarfs have colors more consistent with the fld-g dwarfs. Three of our candidates appear slightly redder than the mean W1 − W2 color of old field objects, given their spectral type. But the other nine candidates have W1 − W2 colors consistent with the field values. Interestingly, there is also no obvious segregation in the W1 − W2 colors between our objects classified as int-g and those classified as int-g? or fld-g.

The average JK colors for M6–M9 dwarfs with gravity classifications of vl-g, int-g, and fld-g are consistent within the uncertainties. However, the JK colors appear to have a stronger dependency with gravity for dwarfs with spectral types of L0 and later. The average JK colors of vl-g L0–L3 dwarfs are redder than for the fld-g L0–L3 dwarfs, with the int-g L0–L3 dwarf average colors intermediate between vl-g and fld-g. Yet, there is significant scatter about these trends. Two of our objects, PSO J004.7+41 (fld-g) and PSO J039.6–21 (int-g), have slightly bluer JK colors compared with the field values. Another four objects, PSO J167.1+68, PSO J306.0+16, PSO J318.4+35, and PSO J334.2+28, (all int-g), have JK colors slightly redder than the field sequence. The remaining objects have JK colors consistent within the uncertainties in the average field values.

One possible reason that our candidate AB Dor moving group members do not have such distinct IR colors from field ultracool dwarfs is that they are older (≈125 Myr) than the young brown dwarf members of the TW Hydrae or β Pic moving groups (∼10–20 Myr), which are classified as vl-g in Allers & Liu (2013) as compared to the fld-g, int-g?, and int-g classifications of our objects. Our AB Dor Moving Group candidates have gravity classifications of int-g or fld-g, which suggests that at ≈125 Myr, ultracool dwarfs tend to have higher gravities than their younger (i.e., ∼10–50 Myr) counterparts. With these intermediate gravities, our ≈125 Myr old dwarfs also have less extreme IR colors compared with the lower-gravity, younger dwarfs.

Table 5 summarizes the full list of AB Dor Moving Group substellar members from our work and the literature. It includes the properties (kinematics, spectral type, gravity classification, parallax, dphot, and RV) of the bona fide substellar members, the previously published substellar candidate AB Dor Moving Group members, and our new candidates. We also include our new parallax for 2MASS J0058–06 from PS1 data. We have calculated the BANYAN II web tool membership probabilities for the candidate members using our proper motions when available, or otherwise those from Gagné et al. (2015c), in addition to our (parallactic or photometric) distances. Our PS1 proper motions agree with the Gagné et al. (2015c) proper motions within the uncertainties and so do not likely contribute significantly to any membership probability differences. For objects also in Gagné et al. (2015b, 2015c), we include their tabulated BANYAN II probabilities, which also use SEDs to determine membership probabilities and thus will not agree with the web tool probabilities. Our probabilities may also disagree due to differences in the adopted distances.

7. CONCLUSIONS

We have used PS1, 2MASS, and WISE photometry coupled with proper motions from PS1+2MASS to search for AB Dor Moving Group substellar candidates. Our search method combines color selection with SED fitting and proper-motion analysis, thereby significantly decreasing the number of field ultracool dwarf interlopers compared with a solely color-selected sample. We have obtained low- and moderate-resolution NIR spectroscopy of our candidates and confirmed the youth of nine objects, six of which we conclude are likely AB Dor Moving Group members. We have also determined the Allers & Liu (2013) gravity classification of our objects and assessed their AB Dor Moving Group membership with the BANYAN II web tool probabilities (Malo et al. 2013; Gagné et al. 2014) and their UVWXYZ positions.

We report the discovery of eight AB Dor Moving Group candidate members with spectral types of M6–L4 and masses down to ≈30 MJup. Six of these have int-g gravity classifications (though one of these int-g objects is spectroscopically peculiar and may be an ultracool subdwarf). The remaining two objects have uncertain gravity classifications of int-g? but have kinematics and spatial positions consistent with group membership. In order to distinguish any of our candidate members from being either an AB Dor Moving Group member or unassociated with any known YMG (e.g., Shkolnik et al. 2009, 2012), we still need to determine parallaxes (for three more objects) and radial velocities, which are currently under way.

Finally, we find four objects that we conclude to be probable field interlopers. Three objects are int-g ultracool dwarfs, and one object is an fld-g ultracool dwarf with a spectrum showing possible hints of youth.

Although many known low-gravity (i.e., young) substellar objects have redder IR colors than their old field analogs, our intermediate-gravity (≈125 Myr) brown dwarfs do not seem to follow this trend. The W1 − W2 colors for the majority of our objects are consistent with fld-g dwarfs (i.e., older dwarfs) with the same spectral type. Also, the average JK colors for mid- to late M dwarfs with both vl-g and int-g gravities are consistent with those of their fld-g counterparts. However, the average JK colors for early L dwarfs are redder for lower-gravity objects compared to those of the fld-g objects, such that vl-g dwarfs are very red and int-g dwarfs are slightly red. This suggests that some young brown dwarfs with ages ≳100 Myr may have IR colors consistent with field objects, unlike the case for younger brown dwarfs (≲100 Myr).

Our updated census of the AB Dor Moving Group brown dwarfs provides a snapshot of brown dwarf evolution. In this era of ample large-area surveys that are sensitive to red, faint substellar objects, refined methods such as ours and those of others (e.g., Gagné et al. 2014) will be able to efficiently uncover the substellar members of the known YMGs. An ensemble of young brown dwarf age benchmarks will allow us to characterize the brown dwarf spectral evolution. Because young brown dwarfs can be analogs of directly imaged planets (e.g., Liu et al. 2013b), this evolutionary sequence will also be valuable to compare with future spectra of young exoplanets.

K.M.A.'s research was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1329626. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys (PS1) have been made possible through contributions of the Institute for Astronomy, the University of Hawaii, the Pan-STARRS Project Office, the Max-Planck Society and its participating institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Johns Hopkins University, Durham University, the University of Edinburgh, Queen's University Belfast, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Incorporated, the National Central University of Taiwan, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX08AR22G issued through the Planetary Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1238877, the University of Maryland, and Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE). We also use data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. In addition, we use data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research has also benefited from the M, L, and T dwarf compendium housed at DwarfArchives.org and maintained by Chris Gelino, Davy Kirkpatrick, and Adam Burgasser. We also use the IRTF Spectral Library housed at http://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/~spex/IRTF_Spectral_Library/index.html and maintained by Michael Cushing. We have also made use of TOPCAT (Taylor 2005), an interactive tool for manipulating and merging tabular data. We would like to thank Katelyn Allers for providing us with her custom version of SpeXtool for reducing Gemini/GNIRS data. Finally, mahalo nui loa to the kama'āina of Hawai'i for allowing us to operate telescopes on Mauna Kea. We wish to acknowledge the very significant cultural role Mauna Kea has within the indigenous Hawaiian community and that we are very fortunate to be able to conduct observations.

Facilities: IRTF (SpeX) - Infrared Telescope Facility, Pan-STARRS1 - , 2MASS - , WISE - Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.

APPENDIX: COMPARISON OF PS1 AND SDSS PROPER MOTIONS IN STRIPE 82

In order to evaluate our proper-motion quality, we compared the proper motions of stars in the SDSS Stripe 82 with those measured by our methods using PS1+2MASS data. Stripe 82 (Bramich et al. 2008) has a total sky area of ≈250 deg2 and spans 99° in R.A. (α = 20.7h–3.3h) and 2fdg52 in decl. (δ = −1fdg26 to +1fdg26). The 7 yr time baseline of SDSS yielded proper motions to an accuracy of ≈5 mas yr−1. We matched the SDSS Stripe 82 stars with their counterparts in the PS1 catalog using a 2'' search radius. We then chose the subset of matches that had at least 20 epochs of PS1+2MASS data and had proper motions below 1'' yr−1. Also, since the PS1 and SDSS z-band filters are similar (Δz ≤ 0.2 mag for stellar objects; Tonry et al. 2012), we excluded stars with significantly deviant PS1 and SDSS z magnitudes ($| {\rm{\Delta }}{\rm{z}}| \geqslant 0.2$ mag) in order to remove potential mismatches. Finally, we also required all PS1 objects to have good-quality z-band photometry as defined in the same fashion as for our search (Section 2).

The total matched sample consisted of 216,902 stars with PS1 proper-motion uncertainties below 20 mas yr−1 in both proper motion in R.A. (μα) and in decl. (μδ). We separated our analysis into three PS1 proper-motion error bins: ≤10 mas yr−1, 10–20 mas yr−1, and ≤20 mas yr−1. The median and the 68.5% range of the differences between the PS1 and SDSS proper motions was 3 ± 8 mas yr−1 in μα and −7 ± 7 mas yr−1 in μδ for objects with PS1 proper-motion uncertainties below 10 mas yr−1. For objects with PS1 proper-motion uncertainties between 10 and 20 mas yr−1, the differences were 3 ± 18 mas yr−1 in μα and −8 ± 21 mas yr−1 in μδ. For all the objects with PS1 proper-motion uncertainties below 20 mas yr−1, differences were 3 ± 11 mas yr−1 in μα and −7 ± 10 mas yr−1 in μδ (Figures 34 and 35). Thus, we conclude that the PS1 and SDSS proper motions are consistent within the uncertainties and that the PS1 proper motions are reliable.

Figure 34.

Figure 34. The deviation between the SDSS Stripe 82 and our PS1+2MASS proper motions in μα and μδ as a function of ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ for all objects with PS1+2MASS proper-motion uncertainties less than 20 mas yr−1 and at least 20 epochs (grayscale image). In order to better show the distribution of our objects, we constructed a grayscale image of the scatter plot of our data by binning by 0.2 mag in ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ and 5 mas yr−1 in proper-motion uncertainties. We scale the image by its square root for clarity. The median proper-motion difference for each bin in ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$ magnitude is shown by the red dots, and the 68.5th and 95.4th confidence intervals are enclosed within the red and brown bars. The numbers at the top represent the number of objects in each magnitude bin. The proper-motion difference between SDSS and PS1+2MASS does not change significantly as a function of ${z}_{{\rm{P1}}}$. The median deviation in μα is 3 ± 11 mas yr−1 and in μδ is −7 ± 10 mas yr−1.

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Figure 35.

Figure 35. A grayscale image of a scatter plot of the devation between the SDSS Stripe 82 and our PS1+2MASS proper motions for all objects with PS1+2MASS proper-motion uncertainties less than 20 mas yr−1 and at least 20 epochs. We constructed the image by binning the data into 2 mas yr−1 wide bins. Again, we scale the image by its square root for clarity. The x-axis is Δμα (${\mu }_{\alpha ,\mathrm{PS}1+2\mathrm{MASS}}-{\mu }_{\alpha ,\mathrm{SDSS}}$), and the y-axis is Δμδ (${\mu }_{\delta ,\mathrm{PS}1+2\mathrm{MASS}}-{\mu }_{\delta ,\mathrm{SDSS}}$). The red contour lines mark the 1σ, 2σ, and 3σ confidence intervals.

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Footnotes

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10.3847/0004-637X/821/2/120