Ultracool dwarfs observed with the <i>Spitzer</i> Infrared Spectrograph – III. Dust grains in young L dwarf atmospheres are heavier
Bibliographic record
Abstract
ABSTRACT Analysis of all archival 5–14 micron spectra of field ultracool dwarfs from the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope has shown that absorption by silicates in the 8–11 micron region is seen in most L-type (1300 to 2200 K) dwarfs. The absorption is caused by silicate-rich clouds in the atmospheres of L dwarfs and is strongest at L4–L6 spectral types. Herein we compare averages of the mid-infrared silicate absorption signatures of L3–L7 dwarfs that have low (≲104.5 cm s−2) versus high (≳105 cm s−2) surface gravity. We find that the silicate absorption feature is sensitive to surface gravity, with young atmospheres having a broader, redder, and more asymmetric absorption profile. This indicates a difference in grain size and composition between dust condensates in young and old mid-L dwarfs. The mean silicate absorption profile of low-gravity mid-L dwarfs matches expectations for ∼1 micron-sized amorphous iron- and magnesium-bearing pyroxene (MgxFe1 − xSiO3) grains. High-gravity mid-L dwarfs have silicate absorption better represented by smaller (≲0.1 μm) and more volatile amorphous enstatite (MgSiO3) or SiO grains. This is the first direct spectroscopic evidence for gravity-dependent sedimentation of dust condensates in ultracool atmospheres. It confirms theoretical expectations for lower sedimentation efficiencies in low-gravity atmospheres and independently confirms their increased dustiness.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".