Searching for Low Mass Stars: the Mass Function at the Hydrogen Burning Limit

Details Searching for Low Mass Stars: the Mass Function at the Hydrogen Burning Limit Searching for Low Mass Stars: the Mass Function at the Hydrogen Burning Limit

Dec 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997hst..prop.7474p&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #7474

Physics

Hst Proposal Id #7474 Stellar Populations

Scientific paper

Deep WFPC2 observations that we carried out in Cycle 4 and 5 of many globular clusters have shown a remarkably common feature in the luminosity function of these objects, i.e. a peak at M_I eq 8.5 followed by a sharp drop all the way to the detection limit. The corresponding mass functions appear to flatten out below 0.2 Msun and possibly drop, with some metallicity dependence. The deepest presently available data seem to indicate that the luminosity function may drop to zero near the H-burning limit. If confirmed, this finding will have strong implications on the physical mechanisms giving rise to low-mass stars, on the contribution of globular clusters to the dark matter in the Galaxy, and on the nature of dark matter itself. To precisely address this issue, however, requires higher sensitivity than has been so far available. We, therefore, propose to use the unprecedented IR imaging capabilities of NICMOS to study the low-mass stars at the end of the main sequence in four nearby globular clusters spanning a wide range of metallicity, precisely at the wavelength corresponding to their maximum emission { 1.1 Mum}. These observations would complete our ongoing investigation by making it possible, for the first time, to reliably count stars right down to and beyond the main sequence H-burning limit, thus leaving no doubt as to whether the IMF indeed drops there or starts rising once again close to the limit.

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