The Substellar Luminosity and Mass Functions of the Trapezium Cluster Down to the Deuterium Burning Limit

Author(s)

August A. Muench, Elizabeth A. Lada, Charles J. Lada, João F. Alves

Abstract

We have employed an advanced suite of Monte Carlo calculations to model

the infrared luminosity function (KLF) of the Trapezium cluster and to

derive its Sub-stellar Initial Mass Function down to the deuterium

burning limit. Independent of the details, we find that substellar

objects can account for no more than ˜22% of the total number of

likely cluster members. This cluster's substellar IMF steadily declines

in a power-law fashion over most of the brown dwarf regime, however the

formation of a secondary peak in the cluster's substellar KLF suggests

the existence of a corresponding secondary peak in the substellar IMF

between 10 and 30 times the mass of Jupiter based upon the seemingly

degenerate behavior of the theoretical substellar mass-luminosity

relation.%

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics

External organisation(s)

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, University of Florida, Gainesville

Volume

211

Pages

Publication date

06-2003

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103004 Astrophysics

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