The c2d SIRTF Legacy
program will map large sky areas of 5 nearby star forming clouds. Point
source extraction and cataloguing will yield one of the deepest ever
surveys of cloud contents extending into the substellar-mass regime.
This will, in turn,
provide a revolutionary
new look at the substellar mass function for very low
mass objects.
Since brown dwarf masses are not
directly observed by SIRTF,
it is important to
model correctly the age-dependent mass-luminosity relation.
Modeling studies by grad student,
Peter Allen,
relate mass and luminosity functions for clusters in different
stages of early evolution:
Allen, P.R., Trilling, D.E., Koerner, D.W., & Reid, I.N. 2003,
Luminosity Functions of Young Clusters: Modeling the Substellar
Mass Regime, ApJ,in press.
Further details of our Legacy plan for studying the substellar mass function
are in the original proposal:
From Molecular Cores to Planets.
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