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The Luminosity Function of White Dwarfs in the Local Disk and Halo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

James Liebert ,
Conard C. Dahn  and
David G. Monet
James Liebert
Affiliation:
Steward Observatory, University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona 85721
Conard C. Dahn
Affiliation:
U. S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff, Arizona 86002
David G. Monet
Affiliation:
U. S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff, Arizona 86002

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The luminosity function (LF) and total space density of white dwarfs in the solar neighborhood contain important information about the star formation history of the stellar population, and provide an independent method of measuring its age. The first empirical estimates of the LF for degenerate stars were those of Weidemann (1967), Kovetz and Shaviv (1976) and Sion and Liebert (1977). The follow-up investigations made possible by the huge Luyten Palomar proper motion surveys, however, added many more faint white dwarfs to the known sample. While the number of known cool white dwarfs grew to nearly one hundred, these did not include any that were much fainter intrinsically than the coolest degenerates found from the early Luyten, van Biesbroeck and Eggen-Greenstein lists.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 114: White Dwarfs , 1989 , pp. 15 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Springer-Verlag 1989

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