1998/10/05 by John E. Gizis, J. E. Gizis, I. Neill Reid +1 · 3 citations
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galactic halo #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Halo #Initial mass function #Luminosity #Luminosity function #Medicine #Metallicity #Physics #Population #Star formation #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Thick disk #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/300709
34 pages inc. 10 figures. To appear in January 1999 Astronomical Journal
arxiv created 1998/10/05 · openalex publication_date 1999/01/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present results of a study of very low mass halo stars. Using a sample of proper-motion stars identified from plate material taken as part of the first and second Palomar Sky Surveys, we measure the space density, metallicity distribution, and kinematics of the Population II M subdwarfs. Our overall luminosity function is in good agreement with previous analyses of the space density of nearby very low mass halo subdwarfs and confirms the discrepancy between local analyses and the space densities inferred from deep Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) star counts. We show for the first time that both the metallicity distribution and kinematics of late-type halo subdwarfs are consistent with those of their higher mass metal-poor counterparts. Dividing our sample by abundance, we find no evidence that the mass function of field halo stars is dependent upon metallicity. We provide data for three nearby subdwarfs that may merit additional observations.