| Issue |
A&A
Volume 373, Number 3, July III 2001
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 886 - 894 | |
| Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010680 | |
| Published online | 15 July 2001 | |
Early galaxy evolution from deep wide field star counts*
II. First estimate of the thick disc mass function
CNRS UMR 6091, Observatoire de Besançon, BP 1615, 25010 Besançon Cedex, France e-mail: annie.robin@obs-besancon.fr
Corresponding author: C. Reylé, celine.reyle@obs-besancon.fr
Received:
11
April
2001
Accepted:
23
April
2001
Star counts at high and intermediate galactic latitudes, in the
visible and the near infrared,
are used to determine the density law and the initial mass function of the
thick disc population. The combination of shallow fields dominated by stars at
the turnoff with deep fields allows the determination of the thick
disc mass function in the mass range 0.2-0.8 
.
Star counts are compared with simulations of a synthesis population model.
The fit is based on a maximum likelihood criterion. The best fit model gives
a scale height of 800 pc, a scale length of 2500 pc and a local density of
10-3 stars pc-3 or 
pc-3
for 
.
The IMF is found to follow a
power law dN/d
. This is the first determination of the
thick disc mass function.
Key words: Galaxy: structure / Galaxy: stellar content / Galaxy: general
© ESO, 2001
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