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Modeling the Near-Infrared Luminosity Functions of Young Stellar Clusters

August A. Muench·Elizabeth A. Lada·Charles J. Lada
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Abstract

We present the results of numerical experiments designed to evaluate the usefulness of near-infrared luminosity functions for constraining the Initial Mass Function (IMF) of young stellar populations. From this numerical modeling, we find that the luminosity function of a young stellar population is considerably more sensitive to variations in the underlying initial mass function than to either variations in the star forming history or assumed pre-main-sequence (PMS) mass-to-luminosity relation. To illustrate the potential effectiveness of using the KLF of a young cluster to constrain its IMF, we model the observed K band luminosity function of the nearby Trapezium cluster. Our derived mass function for the Trapezium spans two orders of magnitude in stellar mass (5 Msun to 0.02 Msun), has a peak near the hydrogen burning limit, and has an IMF for Brown Dwarfs which steadily decreases with decreasing mass.

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August A. Muench, Elizabeth A. Lada, Charles J. Lada. 1999-12-17. Modeling the Near-Infrared Luminosity Functions of Young Stellar Clusters. https://doi.org/10.1086/308638

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