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Standard and Truncated Luminosity Functions for Stars in the Gaia Era
Physics Department, via P. Giuria 1, Turin, Italy
- 1 Physics Department, via P. Giuria 1, Turin, Italy
International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics·Volume 07 (2017)·Pages 255–272·Published 1 November 2017·DOI10.4236/ijaa.2017.74022
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Abstract
The luminosity function (LF) for stars is here fitted by a Schechter function and by a Gamma probability density function. The dependence of the number of stars on the distance, both in the low and high luminosity regions, requires the inclusion of a lower and upper boundary in the Schechter and Gamma LFs. Three astrophysical applications for stars are provided: deduction of the parameters at low distances, behavior of the average absolute magnitude with distance, and the location of the photometric maximum as a function of the selected flux. The use of the truncated LFs allows modeling the Malmquist bias.
KeywordsFundamental Parameters StarsLuminosity FunctionMass Function
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