2010A&A...512A..37S

We present radial velocity measurements of a sample of L0-L8 dwarfs observed with VLT/UVES and Keck/HIRES. We combine these measurements with distance and proper motion from the literature to determine space motions for 43 of our targets. We identify nine candidate members of young moving groups, which have ages of 50-600Myr according to their space motion. From the total velocity dispersion of the 43 L dwarfs, we calculate a kinematic age of ∼5Gyr for our sample. This age is significantly higher than the ∼3Gyr age known for late M dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood. We find that the distributions of the U and V velocity components of our sample are clearly non-Gaussian, placing the age estimate inferred from the full space motion vector into question. The W-component exhibits a distribution more consistent with a normal distribution, and from W alone we derive an age of ∼3Gyr, which is the same age found for late-M dwarf samples. Our brightness-limited sample is probably contaminated by a number of outliers that predominantly bias the U and V velocity components. The origin of the outliers remain unclear, but we suggest that these brown dwarfs may have gained their high velocities by means of ejection from multiple systems during their formation.