A substantial population of low-mass stars in luminous elliptical galaxies

Pieter G. van Dokkum () and Charlie Conroy
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Pieter G. van Dokkum: Yale University
Charlie Conroy: Princeton University

Nature, 2010, vol. 468, issue 7326, 940-942

Abstract: The lesser lights of nearby galaxies The bulk of the stellar population is comprised of dwarf stars. This fact is reflected in the stellar initial mass function (IMF), which describes the mass distribution of stars at the time of their formation. The IMF is reasonably well constrained in the disk of the Milky Way, but we have little direct information on the IMF in other galaxies and at earlier cosmic epochs. Pieter van Dokkum and Charlie Conroy have now spectroscopically detected the signature of the many 'invisible' stars in the light of nearby elliptical galaxies by observing the Na I doublet and the Wing–Ford molecular FeH band, lines which are strong in stars with masses of less than a third that of the Sun. The data imply that these smaller stars account for more than 80% of the total number of stars and contribute more than 60% of total stellar mass in elliptical galaxies.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09578

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