Proto--Brown Dwarfs. I. Methods and Results for High-Latitude Clouds

We describe a method for fiding substellar-mass self-gravitating clumps (proto-brown dwarfs) in nearby molecular clouds, using millimeter-wave telescopes. This method represents a novel approach to looking for brown dwarfs and, for the nearest molecular clouds, has a greater mass, sensitivity than traditional methods. We describe how the method can distinguish between various functional forms of the low-mass (