Ann Marie Cody
Caltech
 

"Searching for Pulsation in Brown Dwarfs and Very Low Mass Stars"
 

Brown dwarfs and very low mass stars constitute a crucial link between the intertwined processes of star formation and planet formation. To date, however, observational methods to uncover their formation mechanism or determine important properties such as mass and age have been lacking. Pulsation powered by deuterium burning in brown dwarfs and very low mass stars is a newly suggested phenomenon that offers unprecedented opportunities to probe the interiors and evolution of these objects.  We have initiated a photometric campaign to search for this putative class of pulsators among low-mass members of several young star clusters. I will describe our sample selection and monitoring techniques and report on some of the initial results. We expect the detection of variability in young objects near the substellar boundary to result in some valuable secondary science, as well as ultimately provide a way to correlate observational data with fundamental parameters via the techniques of seismology.