2016ApJS..225...10F

We present a kinematic analysis of 152 low surface gravity M7-L8 dwarfs by adding 18 new parallaxes (including 10 for comparative field objects), 38 new radial velocities, and 19 new proper motions. We also add low- or moderate-resolution near-infrared spectra for 43 sources confirming their low surface gravity features. Among the full sample, we find 39 objects to be high-likelihood or new bona fide members of nearby moving groups, 92 objects to be ambiguous members and 21 objects that are non-members. Using this age-calibrated sample, we investigate trends in gravity classification, photometric color, absolute magnitude, color-magnitude, luminosity, and effective temperature. We find that gravity classification and photometric color clearly separate 5-130 Myr sources from >3 Gyr field objects, but they do not correlate one to one with the narrower 5-130 Myr age range. Sources with the same spectral subtype in the same group have systematically redder colors, but they are distributed between 1 and 4σ from the field sequences and the most extreme outlier switches between intermediate- and low-gravity sources either confirmed in a group or not. The absolute magnitudes of low-gravity sources from the J band through W3 show a flux redistribution when compared to equivalently typed field brown dwarfs that is correlated with spectral subtype. Low-gravity, late-type L dwarfs are fainter at J than the field sequence but brighter by W3. Low-gravity M dwarfs are >1 mag brighter than field dwarfs in all bands from J through W3. Clouds, which are a far more dominant opacity source for L dwarfs, are the likely cause. On color-magnitude diagrams, the latest-type, low-gravity L dwarfs drive the elbow of the L/T transition up to 1 mag redder and 1 mag fainter than field dwarfs at M_J but are consistent with or brighter than the elbow at M_W1 and M_W2. We conclude that low-gravity dwarfs carry an extreme version of the cloud conditions of field objects to lower temperatures, which logically extends into the lowest-mass, directly imaged exoplanets. Furthermore, there is an indication on color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs; such as M_J versus (J-W2)) of increasingly redder sequences separated by gravity classification, although it is not consistent across all CMD combinations. Examining bolometric luminosities for planets and low-gravity objects, we confirm that (in general) young M dwarfs are overluminous while young L dwarfs are normal compared to the field. Using model extracted radii, this translates into normal to slightly warmer M dwarf temperatures compared to the field sequence and lower temperatures for L dwarfs with no obvious correlation with the assigned moving group.