The brown dwarf mass function from pixel microlensing

We argue that gravitational microlensing is a feasible technique for measuring the mass function of brown dwarf stars in distant galaxies. Microlensing surveys of the bulge of M31, and of M87 in the Virgo cluster, may provide enough events to differentiate the behaviour of the mass function of lense...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2001-05, Vol.323 (2), p.L31-L35
Main Authors: Baltz, E. A., Silk, J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
brown dwarfs
cosmology: observations
dark matter
galaxies: haloes
gravitational lensing
mass function
stars: low-mass
stars: low‐mass, brown dwarfs
stars: luminosity function
stars: luminosity function, mass function
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Summary:We argue that gravitational microlensing is a feasible technique for measuring the mass function of brown dwarf stars in distant galaxies. Microlensing surveys of the bulge of M31, and of M87 in the Virgo cluster, may provide enough events to differentiate the behaviour of the mass function of lenses below the hydrogen-burning limit (although we find that M87 is a more favourable target). Such objects may provide a significant supply of baryonic dark matter, an interesting possibility for the study of galactic dynamics. Furthermore, these systems have different metallicities from the solar neighbourhood, which may affect the mass function. These considerations are relevant in the context of star formation studies.
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04482.x