The Luminosity Function of Late-Type Main-Sequence Stars in the Direction of the North Galactic Cap

1977 ◽  
pp. 31-31
Author(s):  
Donna Weistrop
1977 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Weistrop

As a result of the recent discussion concerning the luminosity function of late-type main-sequence stars (Weistrop 1976 and references therein), a program of photoelectric photometry of all red stars in a field near the North Galactic Pole was undertaken. The sample is complete for stars redder than (B - V) = 1.40 magnitude for the following apparent magnitude and area limits: V = 12.0-14.0 magnitudes, 13.5 square degrees; V = 14.0-15.0 magnitudes, 3.0 square degrees; V = 15.0-17.5 magnitudes, 1.0 square degree. Observations in BVRI have been obtained for the 44 stars in the sample. Giants and dwarfs are distinguished by their location in the (B - V)-(V - I) diagram or from published proper motion data, where available. The absolute magnitudes of the dwarfs are determined from the MR - (R - I) relation.The density distribution perpendicular to the galactic plane of the dwarfs is consistent with the distribution for K giants found by Oort (1960). The derived luminosity function does not differ significantly from that determined by Wielen (1974) for stars close to the Sun. The local space density for stars in the interval MV = 8.5-14.0 magnitudes is 0.099 stars pc−3. The corresponding stellar density derived from Wielen’s luminosity function is >0.066 stars pc−3. Sixty-six percent of the density derived here is contributed by two stars with absolute magnitude in the range MV = 13.0−14.0 magnitudes.


1977 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Sanduleak

Based on the observations of M giant stars in the north galactic polar objective-prism survey of Upgren (1960) and the data summarized by Blanco (1965) the overall space density of all M-type giants as a function of distance from the galactic plane at the position of the sun can be approximated by,where z is in kpc and ρ(z) is the number of stars per 106 pc3. This relationship is derived from the observed fall-off in space densities up to a distance of about 2 kpc.The question arises as to the validity of extrapolation equation (1) to larger z distances so as to predict the number of faint M giants expected per unit area near the galactic poles. Adopting for the M giants a mean visual absolute magnitude of −1.0 (Blanco 1965), one finds that equation (1) predicts that less than one giant fainter than V~12 should be expected in a region of 200 square degrees. This expectation formed the hypothesis of a thesis study (Sanduleak 1965) in which it was assumed that the very faint M stars detected in a deep, infrared objective-prism survey at the NGP were main-sequence stars, since this could not be ascertained spectroscopically on the very low-dispersion plates used.


1977 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-76
Author(s):  
A. R. Upgren

Recently Dessureau and Upgren (1975) redetermined the velocity distribution of giant stars in the north galactic pole direction using Upgren’s (1962) catalogue and Oort’s (1960) determination of K(z). The velocities were assumed to be represented by n Gaussian distributions with no further constraints imposed. The velocities are well represented by three such distributions whose properties disagree with those found by Oort. A larger number did not improve the stability of the solution. Without radial velocities, however, they could not redetermine the K(z) force itself.


1959 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 39-40
Author(s):  
O. C. Wilson

Modern photoelectric techniques yield magnitudes and colors of stars with accuracies of the order of a few thousandths and a few hundredths of a magnitude respectively. Hence for star clusters it is possible to derive highly accurate color-magnitude arrays since all of the members of a cluster may be considered to be at the same distance from the observer. It is much more difficult to do this for the nearby stars where all of the objects concerned are at different, and often poorly determined, distances. If one depends upon trigonometric parallaxes, the bulk of the reliable individual values will refer to main sequence stars, and while the mean luminosities of brighter stars are given reasonably well by this method, the scatter introduced into a color-magnitude array by using individual trigonometrically determined luminosities could obscure important features. Somewhat similar objections could be raised against the use of the usual spectroscopic parallaxes which also should be quite good for the main sequence but undoubtedly exhibit appreciable scatter for some, at least, of the brighter stars.


2019 ◽  
Vol 628 ◽  
pp. A41 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Pizzocaro ◽  
B. Stelzer ◽  
E. Poretti ◽  
S. Raetz ◽  
G. Micela ◽  
...  

The relation between magnetic activity and rotation in late-type stars provides fundamental information on stellar dynamos and angular momentum evolution. Rotation-activity studies found in the literature suffer from inhomogeneity in the measurement of activity indexes and rotation periods. We overcome this limitation with a study of the X-ray emitting, late-type main-sequence stars observed by XMM-Newton and Kepler. We measured rotation periods from photometric variability in Kepler light curves. As activity indicators, we adopted the X-ray luminosity, the number frequency of white-light flares, the amplitude of the rotational photometric modulation, and the standard deviation in the Kepler light curves. The search for X-ray flares in the light curves provided by the EXTraS (Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky) FP-7 project allows us to identify simultaneous X-ray and white-light flares. A careful selection of the X-ray sources in the Kepler field yields 102 main-sequence stars with spectral types from A to M. We find rotation periods for 74 X-ray emitting main-sequence stars, 20 of which do not have period reported in the previous literature. In the X-ray activity-rotation relation, we see evidence for the traditional distinction of a saturated and a correlated part, the latter presenting a continuous decrease in activity towards slower rotators. For the optical activity indicators the transition is abrupt and located at a period of ~10 d but it can be probed only marginally with this sample, which is biased towards fast rotators due to the X-ray selection. We observe seven bona-fide X-ray flares with evidence for a white-light counterpart in simultaneous Kepler data. We derive an X-ray flare frequency of ~0.15 d−1, consistent with the optical flare frequency obtained from the much longer Kepler time-series.


1995 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 2415 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Ali ◽  
John S. Carr ◽  
D. L. Depoy ◽  
Jay A. Frogel ◽  
K. Sellgren

Author(s):  
F. Koller ◽  
M. Leitzinger ◽  
M. Temmer ◽  
P. Odert ◽  
P. G. Beck ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (S314) ◽  
pp. 91-94
Author(s):  
Garrett Somers ◽  
Marc H. Pinsonneault

AbstractWe investigate the impact of starspots on the evolution of late-type stars during the pre-main sequence (pre-MS). We find that heavy spot coverage increases the radii of stars by 4–10%, consistent with inflation factors in eclipsing binary systems, and suppresses the rate of pre-MS lithium depletion, leading to a dispersion in zero-age MS Li abundance (comparable to observed spreads) if a range of spot properties exist within clusters from 3-10 Myr. This concordance with data implies that spots induce a range of radii at fixed mass during the pre-MS. These spots decrease the luminosity and Teff of stars, leading to a displacement on the HR diagram. This displacement causes isochrone derived masses and ages to be systematically under-estimated, and can lead to the spurious appearance of an age spread in a co-eval population.


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