Halo Mass Function: Low-mass Stars in Deep Fields

Abstract

Deep fields are unique probes of the Galactic halo. With a limiting magnitude of, e.g., I = 30 mag, all stars down to the hydrogen-burning limit are detected out to distances of 10 kpc, while stars with 0.5 solar masses could be traced out to distances of 400 kpc. Thus deep fields provide an opportunity to study both the structure of the Galactic halo and the mass function of population (Pop) II and Pop III stars. I summarize previous work on the Galactic stellar halo utilizing the Hubble Deep Fields North and South, supplemented by a preliminary analysis of the recently released Hubble Ultra-Deep Field.

6 pages, Latex, 4 figures, to be published in ``IMF@50: A Fest-Colloquium in honor of Edwin E. Salpeter,'' held at Abbazia di Spineto, Siena, Italy, May 16-20, 2004. Kluwer Academic Publishers; edited by E. Corbelli, F. Palla, and H. Zinnecker

References in corpus (5)

• The Hubble Deep Field: Observations, Data Reduction, and Galaxy Photometry
• The Spheroid Luminosity and Mass Functions From HST Star Counts
• Is Galactic Dark Matter White ?
• The Subdwarf Luminosity Function
• The Galactic Inner Halo: Searching for White Dwarfs and Measuring the Fundamental Galactic Constant, Vo/Ro