Analytical functions which fit the probability distributions of stars and galaxies can provide insight into how these distributions originate. In order to introduce a truncated version of the Gompertz distribution, we derive its probability density function, its distribution function, its average value, its second moment about the origin, its median, its random generation of values and a maximum likelihood estimator for its two unknown parameters. The astrophysical applications of the Gompertz distribution are the initial mass function for stars, the luminosity function for the galaxies of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the photometric maximum of galaxies visible in the GLADE+ catalog and a model for the mean absolute magnitude in the GLADE+ catalog as a function of the redshift.
KeywordsStars: NormalStars: Luminosity FunctionMass Function Stars: Statistics
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