Title:
The Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project (BDKP):
Learning from the motions of Ultracool Dwarfs

Abstract:
Kinematics provide important information concerning ages,
multiplicity, moving group membership, and evolutionary trends.  In
order to study 6D positions and velocities of the ultracool dwarf
population, we have initiated the Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project
(BDKP) which aims to measure and compile precise positions, distances
and velocities for all known brown dwarfs within 20 pc of the Sun and
a select sample of unusually young, old and peculiar sources.  The
brown dwarf population is small but we have gathered a statistically
significant sample to begin analyzing important fundamental
properties.  We have cross-correlated all known brown dwarfs with
proper motions to the Hipparcos and LSMP-N catalogues and detected 10
new wide companions.  We have used monte-carlo simulations to
demonstrate that these new systems are not chance alignments.  We will
discuss the importance of these new systems and their role as
benchmark sources for the brown dwarf population.