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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 1(560), p. L75-L78, 2001

DOI: 10.1086/324174

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Color--Magnitude Diagram and Luminosity Function of M4 Near the Hydrogen-Burning Limit

Journal article published in 2001 by Luigi R. Bedin ORCID, Jay Anderson, Ivan R. King, Giampaolo Piotto ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

A proper-motion separation of M4 members from field stars, using deep HST observations separated by a time base-line of 5 years, allows us to study a pure sample of cluster main-sequence stars almost to the minimum mass for hydrogen burning. High-precision photometry shows how badly current theoretical models fail to reproduce the color-magnitude diagram of low-mass stars of moderate metallicity ([M/H] ~ -1). This inability of theory to reproduce the luminosity-radius relation casts doubt on the theoretical mass-luminosity relation, which is needed to convert the observed luminosity function (LF) into a mass function (MF), as well as to convert our locally determined LF into a global MF. To the extent that we trust theoretical M-L relations for such transformations, we obtain a flat MF from the LF, and some indication that theoretical masses might be too low at a given luminosity, near the H-burning limit. ; Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, ApJL in press (Accepted 30 Aug 2001)