Poster Abstracts

Name/Affiliation:  Emily Rice (College of Staten Island, CUNY)

Title:  Spectral & Photometric Analysis of Blue and Red L Dwarfs

Abstract:
L type brown dwarfs have a range of near-infrared colors at a given optically-defined spectral subtype, which is variously attributed to differences in gravity, metallicity, and dust/cloud properties. For a limited number of these objects, diagnostic spectral features indicate low surface gravity (red, young objects) or low metallicity (blue, subdwarfs), but for most of the objects the cause of the extreme color is unknown. We explore the photometric and spectral properties of color outliers using multi-resolution near-infrared spectra, WISE mid-infrared photometry, parallaxes, and kinematics to explore underlying physical and atmospheric properties. The analysis is anchored by optical spectra (as a proxy for effective temperature) and benchmarks such as confirmed young objects, subdwarfs, and companions. This is the largest, most diverse observational dataset of red and blue L dwarfs assembled to date.