A Deep Multicolor Survey. V. The M Dwarf Luminosity Function
Abstract
We present a study of M dwarfs discovered in a large-area, multicolor survey. We employ a combination of morphological and color criteria to select M dwarfs to a limiting magnitude in V of 22, the deepest such ground-based survey for M dwarfs to date. We solve for the vertical disk stellar density law and use the resulting parameters to derive the M dwarf luminosity and mass functions from this sample. We find that the stellar luminosity function peaks at M_V ~ 12 and declines thereafter. Our derived mass function for stars with M < 0.6 M_⊙ is inconsistent with a Salpeter function at the 3 sigma level; instead, we find that the mass function is relatively flat for 0.6 M_⊙ > M > 0.1 M_⊙.
- Publication:
-
The Astronomical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 1998
- DOI:
- 10.1086/300605
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9808028
- Bibcode:
- 1998AJ....116.2513M
- Keywords:
-
- STARS: LATE-TYPE;
- STARS: LOW-MASS;
- BROWN DWARFS;
- STARS: LUMINOSITY FUNCTION;
- MASS FUNCTION;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in AJ. 19 pages including 4 embedded postscript figures (AASTEX)