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Very-Low-Mass Stars in Globular Clusters

from I - Searches in Clusters, Stellar Associations and the Field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2010

I. R. King
Affiliation:
Astronomy Dept., University of California, Berkeley, CA 92720-3411, USA
G. Piotto
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, Vicolo dell' Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
Rafael Rebolo
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife
Maria Rosa Zapatero-Osorio
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife
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Summary

We discuss the low-mass ends of mass functions in globular clusters, and extrapolate them to estimate the number of brown dwarfs. Although the brown dwarfs can be quite numerous, they probably contain only a small fraction of the mass of a cluster. We show how the mass function can be pursued observationally down close to the hydrogen-burning limit, and how these observations can be used to derive an empirical mass-luminosity relation for this region. We mention briefly a projected microlensing observation that may actually reveal the presence of brown dwarfs in one cluster.

Introduction

This paper has three parts. First will be an estimate of how many brown dwarfs there ought to be in globular clusters, by following their observed mass functions as close as possible to the hydrogen-burning limit, and then naïvely extrapolating the mass function beyond that. Next will be a discussion of the H-burning limit and how we can try to locate it observationally, by pushing luminosity functions as faint as possible. This part will conclude with a demonstration of how the observations can guide the theoreticians toward more accurate models in that region, by telling us something about how the MLR must go. And finally we will give a brief description of a microlensing experiment that some one else has underway, that may actually tell us how many brown dwarfs one particular globular cluster contains.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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  • Very-Low-Mass Stars in Globular Clusters
    • By I. R. King, Astronomy Dept., University of California, Berkeley, CA 92720-3411, USA, G. Piotto, Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, Vicolo dell' Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
  • Edited by Rafael Rebolo, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife, Maria Rosa Zapatero-Osorio, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife
  • Book: Very Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564758.009
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  • Very-Low-Mass Stars in Globular Clusters
    • By I. R. King, Astronomy Dept., University of California, Berkeley, CA 92720-3411, USA, G. Piotto, Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, Vicolo dell' Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
  • Edited by Rafael Rebolo, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife, Maria Rosa Zapatero-Osorio, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife
  • Book: Very Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564758.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Very-Low-Mass Stars in Globular Clusters
    • By I. R. King, Astronomy Dept., University of California, Berkeley, CA 92720-3411, USA, G. Piotto, Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, Vicolo dell' Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
  • Edited by Rafael Rebolo, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife, Maria Rosa Zapatero-Osorio, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife
  • Book: Very Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564758.009
Available formats
×