Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 182
This version created on 05 October 2006

Measuring the Luminosity Function of Low-Mass Stars With Matched
Survey Datasets


Kevin Covey, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
John Bochanski, University of Washington
Suzanne Hawley, University of Washington
I.N. Reid, Space Telescope Science Institute
David Golimowski, Johns Hopkins University

We present an initial measurement of the luminosity and mass functions
of low mass stars as constructed from a catalog of matched Sloan
Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) point
sources.  We have assembled a photometric catalog of 25,000+ matched
SDSS and 2MASS point sources, spanning over 30  square degrees on the
sky.  We have also obtained follow-up spectroscopy, complete to J=16,
of 500+ low mass dwarf candidates within a 1 square degree sub-sample,
and thousands of additional dwarf candidates in the remaining 29
square degrees.  This spectroscopic sample verifies that less than 1%
of the photometric catalog is affected by incompleteness,
contamination, or bias.  Using this sample, we derive the luminosity
and mass functions of low-mass stars over nearly a decade in mass (
0.7 M_solar < M_* < 0.1 M_solar), and compare our findings to previous
results.  Having validated this method to generate a low mass
luminosity function from matched SDSS/2MASS datasets, future studies
will extend this technique to the entirety of the SDSS/2MASS overlap.

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