Deep luminosity function of the globular cluster M13
The luminosity function in a field of M13 at 14 core radii has been observed to M(V) = +12.0, and new theoretical, low-mass, stellar models appropriate to M13 are used to convert the function to a mass function which extends to M = 0.18 solar, within a factor of two of brown dwarf masses at this metal abundance. As the number of stars observed in each magnitude bin is still increasing at the limit of the data, the presence of stars with masses lower than 0.18 solar is probable. This result sets an upper limit of 0.18 solar mass for low-mass cutoffs in dynamical models of M13. No single power law mass function fits all the observations. The trend of the data supports the idea of a steep increase in the slope of the mass function for M less than 0.4 solar. The results imply that the total mass in low-mass stars in M13, and by implication elsewhere, is higher than was previously thought. 26 references.
- Research Organization:
- British Columbia Univ., Vancouver (Canada); Victoria Univ. (Canada)
- OSTI ID:
- 7024052
- Journal Information:
- Astron. J.; (United States), Vol. 95
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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