NEGLECTED CLOUDS IN T AND Y DWARF ATMOSPHERES

Abstract

As brown dwarfs cool, a variety of species condense in their atmospheres, forming clouds. Iron and silicate clouds shape the emergent spectra of L dwarfs, but these clouds dissipate at the L/T transition. A variety of other condensates are expected to form in cooler T dwarf atmospheres. These include Cr, MnS, Na 2 S, ZnS, and KCl, but the opacity of these optically thinner clouds has not been included in previous atmosphere models. Here, we examine their effect on model T and Y dwarf atmospheres. The cloud structures and opacities are calculated using the Ackerman & Marley cloud model, which is coupled to an atmosphere model to produce atmospheric pressure–temperature profiles in radiative–convective equilibrium. We generate a suite of models between T eff = 400 and 1300 K, log g = 4.0 and 5.5, and condensate sedimentation efficiencies from f sed = 2 to 5. Model spectra are compared to two red T dwarfs, Ross 458C and UGPS 0722–05; models that include clouds are found to match observed spectra significantly better than cloudless models. The emergence of sulfide clouds in cool atmospheres, particularly Na 2 S, may be a more natural explanation for the "cloudy" spectra of these objects, rather than the reemergence of silicate clouds that wane at the L-to-T transition. We find that sulfide clouds provide a mechanism to match the near- and mid-infrared colors of observed T dwarfs. Our results indicate that including the opacity of condensates in T dwarf atmospheres is necessary to accurately determine the physical characteristics of many of the observed objects.