Atmospheric Retrieval of Subaru/IRD High-resolution Spectrum of the Archetype T-type Brown Dwarf Gl 229 B

Abstract

Brown dwarfs provide a unique opportunity to study atmospheres and their physical and chemical processes with high precision, especially in temperature ranges relevant to exoplanets. In this study, we performed high-resolution ( R ∼ 70,000) spectroscopy using Subaru/IRD ( Y , J , H bands) of the T7.0p-type object Gl 229 B, the first discovered T-type brown dwarf, which orbits an M1V host star at a separation of 33 au. We conducted atmospheric retrieval on the reduced H -band spectrum using the high-resolution spectrum model compatible with automatic differentiation and GPU, ExoJAX. In contrast to previous retrieval studies on medium-resolution spectra, we obtained a C/O ratio consistent with that of the host star, aligning with the expected formation process for such a massive brown dwarf. Additionally, based on the strong constraint on temperature from the high-resolution spectrum and previously measured photometric magnitude, our analysis indicates that Gl 229 B is a binary, which was also proposed by G. M. Brandt et al. and recently confirmed by J. W. Xuan et al. Finally, we validated current molecular line lists by leveraging the obtained high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectrum of this warm (∼900 K) atmosphere. This study highlights the importance of observing companion brown dwarfs as benchmark objects for establishing characterization techniques for low-mass objects and enhancing our understanding of their atmospheres, given the wealth of available information and the relative ease of observation.

Keywords

• Brown dwarfs
• T dwarfs
• Exoplanet atmospheres
• High resolution spectroscopy
• Molecular spectroscopy