Substellar Companions to Main-Sequence Stars: No Brown Dwarf Desert at Wide Separations

We use three field L and T dwarfs which were discovered to be wide companionsto known stars by the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) to derive a preliminarybrown dwarf companion frequency. Observed L and T dwarfs indicate that browndwarfs are not unusually rare as wide (Delta >1000 A.U.) systems to F-M0main-sequence stars (M>0.5M_sun, M_V<9.5), even though they are rare at closeseparation (Delta <3 A.U.), the ``brown dwarf desert.'' Stellar companions inthese separation ranges are equally frequent, but brown dwarfs are >~ 10 timesas frequent for wide than close separations. A brown dwarf wide-companionfrequency as low as the 0.5% seen in the brown dwarf desert is ruled out bycurrently-available observations.Comment: ApJL, in pres