The Formation of Low-Mass-Protostars and Proto-Brown Dwarfs

Abstract

The formation of low-mass protostars and especially of brown dwarfs currently are ``hot topics'' in cool star research. The talks contributed to this splinter session discussed how low in mass and how low in luminosity objects might exist, if these substellar objects show evidence for circum(sub)stellar disks, and how the bottom of the mass function in young clusters after the formation process looks like. In a lively open discussion, a vast majority of the speakers and the audience expressed why, given the available data, a stellar-like formation mechanism down to the lowest masses should be preferred.