Collaborative Research: Deciphering Brown Dwarf Spectra: Disentangling Temperature, Age, Metallicity, Cloud Signatures

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This collaborative proposal brings together the theoretical and observational skills from two researchers to conduct a study of L-dwarfs, which are relatively cool brown dwarf stellar objects. They will use optical and infrared spectroscopy and photometry of approximately thirty L- dwarfs to constrain and revise models of the atmospheres and evolution of low mass stellar objects. They will use archive data from Spitzer IRAC and 2MASS surveys, and new data from a 1.3-m telescope in Chile and 2.4-m MDM telescope. They will focus on determining accurate values of effective temperature, mass and metallicity of the dwarfs, and to better understand why many young brown dwarfs are not as luminous as models predict.Broader impacts include the research training of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups from the City University of New York system, supporting the AstroBetter blog, producing planetarium videos and other public outreach activities through the American Museum of Natural History.