Outflows and disks of brown dwarfs with SMA, CARMA and ALMA

Abstract

Brown dwarfs are on the dividing line between planets and stars. Up to date, about 1,000 brown dwarfs, including the coolest known brown dwarfs with temperatures of ∼300 K as cool as the human body, have been discovered. However, the origin of these objects is still not well understood. Here we report our study of molecular outflows and disks of young very-low mass stars and brown dwarfs in ρ Ophiuchi and Taurus using the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA). The observations of brown dwarfs at early stages provide key information to understand their formation mechanism as well as planet formation around these very low-mass objects. We also discuss future observations of brown dwarfs with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).