New neighbours. III. 21 new companions to nearby dwarfs, discovered with adaptive optics

We present some results of a CFHT adaptive optics search for companions to nearby dwarfs. We identify 21 new components in solar neighbourhood systems, of which 13 were found while surveying a volume-limited sample of M dwarfs within 12pc. We are obtaining complete observations for this subsample, to derive unbiased multiplicity statistics for the very-low-mass disk population. Additionally, we resolve for the first time 6 known spectroscopic or astrometric binaries, for a total of 27 newly resolved companions. A fair fraction of the new binaries has favourable parameters for accurate mass determinations. The newly resolved companion of Gl120.1C had an apparent spectroscopic minimum mass in the brown-dwarf range (Duquennoy & Mayor 1991) and it contributed to the statistical evidence that a few percent of solar type stars might have close-in brown-dwarf companions. We find that Gl~120.1C actually is an unrecognised double-lined spectroscopic pair. Its radial-velocity amplitude had therefore been strongly underestimated by Duquennoy & Mayor, and it does not truly belong to their sample of single-lined systems with minimum spectroscopic mass below the substellar limit. We also present the first direct detection of Gl~494B, an astrometric brown-dwarf candidate. Its luminosity does straddle the substellar limit, and it is a brown dwarf if its age is less than 300Myr. A few more years of observations will ascertain its mass and status from first principles.