Searching for Brown Dwarfs in Large Photometric Surveys: WISE, 2MASS, and DES

Abstract

Homogeneous and complete samples of brown dwarfs are needed for various kinds of studies: kinematic studies of the Galaxy, studies of binary stars with brown dwarfs, refinement of the low-mass end of the initial mass function, etc. According to various estimates, brown dwarfs can make up to 25% of the population of the Galaxy; however, the discovery of brown dwarfs with spectroscopic methods is extremely labor-intensive. In this paper, we present the cross-identification of the known nearest brown dwarfs from the 2021 list with the DES optical survey and the creation of photometric rules based on the detection of brown dwarfs in three surveys: WISE, 2MASS, and DES. Moreover, we present different photometric rules for each of the three families of brown dwarfs: bright, transit, and faint. No such division has been made yet.