One more neighbor: The first brown dwarf in the VVV survey

Context. The discovery of brown dwarfs (BDs) in the solar neighborhood and young star clusters has helped to constraint the low-mass end of the stellar mass function and the initial mass function. We use data of the Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV), a near-infrared (NIR) multi-wavelength (ZYJH K-s) multi-epoch (K-s) ESO Public Survey mapping the Milky Way bulge and southern Galactic plane to search for nearby BDs. Aims. The ultimate aim of the project is to improve the completeness of the census of nearby stellar and substellar objects towards the Galactic bulge and inner disk regions. Methods. Taking advantage of the homogeneous sample of VVV multi-epoch data, we identified stars with high proper motion (>= 0.1 yr(-1)), and then selected low-mass objects using NIR colors. We searched for a possible parallax signature using the all available K-s band epochs. We set some constraints on the month-to-year scale K-s band variability of our candidates, and even searched for possible transiting companions. We obtained NIR spectra to properly classify spectral type and then the physical properties of the final list of candidates. Results. We report the discovery of VVV BD001, a new member of the local volume-limited sample (within 20 pc from the Sun) with well defined proper motion, distance, and luminosity. The spectral type of this new object is an L5 +/- 1, unusually blue dwarf. The proper motion for this BD is PM(alpha) = -0.5455 +/- 0.004 yr(-1), PM(delta) = -0.3255 +/- 0.004 yr(-1), and it has a parallax of 57 +/- 4 mas which translates into a distance of 17.5 +/- 1.1 pc. VVV BD001 shows no evidence of variability (Delta K-s < 0.05 mag) over two years, especially constrained on a six month scale during the year 2012.