K–H 2 line shapes for the spectra of cool brown dwarfs

International audience; Observations of cooler and cooler brown dwarfs show that the contribution from broadening at many bars pressure is becoming important. The opacity in the red optical to near-IR region under these conditions is dominated by the extremely pressure-broadened wings of the alkali resonance lines, in particular, the K I resonance doublet at 0.77 µm. Collisions with H 2 are preponderant in brown dwarf atmospheres at an effective temperature of about 1000 K; the H 2 perturber densities reach several 10 19 even in Jupiter-mass planets and exceed 10 20 for super-Jupiters and older Y dwarfs. As a consequence, it appears that when the far wing absorption due to alkali atoms in a dense H 2 atmosphere is significant, accurate pressure broadened profiles that are valid at high densities of H 2 should be incorporated into spectral models.