COLORS AND KINEMATICS OF L DWARFS FROM THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY

We present a sample of 484 L dwarfs, 210 of which are newly discovered from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 spectroscopic database. We combine this sample with known L dwarfs to investigate their izJHK[subscript S] colors. Our spectroscopically selected sample has ~0.1 mag bluer median J – K[subscript S] color at a given spectral type (for L0-L4) than previously known L dwarfs, which reflects a bias toward redder L dwarfs in past selection criteria. We present photometric distance relations based on i – z and i – J colors and derive distances to our L dwarf sample. We combine the distances with SDSS/2MASS proper motions in order to examine the tangential velocities. For the majority of our spectroscopic sample, we measured radial velocities and present three-dimensional kinematics. We also provide Hα detections for the fraction of our sample with sufficient quality spectra. Comparison of the velocities of our L dwarf sample to a kinematic model shows evidence for both cold and hot dynamical populations, consistent with young and old disk components. The dispersions of these components are similar to those found for M dwarfs. We also show that J – K[subscript S] color is correlated with velocity dispersion, confirming a relationship between J – K[subscript S] color and age.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST 06-07644