Professor James Binney FRS

Abstract:

The amount of mass contained in low-mass objects is investigated anew. Instead of using a mass-luminosity relation to convert a luminosity function to a mass function, I predict the mass-luminosity relation from assumed mass functions and the luminosity functions of Jahreiss & Wielen (1997) and Gould et al (1997). Comparison of the resulting mass-luminosity relations with data from binary stars constrains the permissible mass functions. If the mass function is assumed to be a power law, the best fitting slope lies either side of the critical slope, -2, below which the mass in low-mass objects is divergent, depending on the luminosity function adopted. If these power-law mass functions are truncated at 0.001Msun, the contribution to the local density of stars lies between 0.016 and 0.039 Msun pc^-3, in conformity with the density measured dynamically from Hipparcos stars. If the mass function is generalized from a power law to a low-order polynomial in log(M), the mass in stars with M<0.1Msun is either negligible or strongly divergent, depending on the order of the polynomial adopted.

Abstract:

N-body simulations show that when infall reorientates the outer parts of a galactic halo by several degrees per Gyr, a self-gravitating disk that is embedded in the halo develops an integral-sign warp that is comparable in amplitude to observed warps. Studies of angular-momentum acquisition suggest that the required rate of halo reorientation is realistic for galaxies like the Milky Way.

Abstract:

GALACTIC ASTRONOMY introduces all astronomical concepts necessary to understand the properties of galaxies, including coordinate systems, magnitudes and colors, ...