Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XV. CoRoT-15b: a brown-dwarf transiting companion

F. BOUCHY; M. DELEUIL; T. GUILLOT; S. AIGRAIN; L. CARONE; W. D. COCHRAN; J. M. ALMENARA; R. ALONSO; M. AUVERGNE; A. BAGLIN; P. BARGE; A. S. BONOMO; P. BORDÉ; SZ. CSIZMADIA; K. DE BONDT; H. J. DEEG; R. F. DÍAZ; AND 32 COAUTHORS

ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

EDP SCIENCES S A

Lugar: Paris; Año: 2011 vol. 525 p. 1 - 6

0004-6361

We report the discovery by the CoRoT space mission of a transiting brown dwarf orbiting a F7V star with an orbital period of 3.06 days. CoRoT-15b has a radius of 1.12+0.30-0.15 {R}_Jup and a mass of 63.3 ± 4.1 {M}_Jup, and is thus the second transiting companion lying in the theoretical mass domain of brown dwarfs. CoRoT-15b is either very young or inflated compared to standard evolution models, a situation similar to that of M-dwarf stars orbiting close to solar-type stars. Spectroscopic constraints and an analysis of the lightcurve imply a spin period in the range 2.9-3.1 days for the central star, which is compatible with a double-synchronisation of the system.