Secular variations in the initial luminosity function
Abstract
This paper describes a technique by which stellar space motion may be used as an age criterion. The technique is used to investigate past forms of the initial luminosity function. The results of the investigation indicate that the average initial luminosity function of nearby field stars, formed during the last 5 X I o yr, continues to rise beyond Mv = + , in contrast with the luminosity function of stars in recently formed clusters which declines beyond Mv = + . Present results indicate that the gradient of the initial luminosity function of stars formed during the last 5 X io yr does not differ from that of the general luminosity function by more than a factorf = 2, in the interval Mv = + to + .
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- 1970
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/150.2.195
- Bibcode:
- 1970MNRAS.150..195D