The DOI matches its Crossref record.
The Luminosity Function and Stellar Evolution.
Abstract
The evolutionary significance of the observed luminosity function for main-sequence stars in the solar neighborhood is discussed. The hypothesis is made that stars move off the main sequence after burning about 10 per cent of their hydrogen mass and that stars have been created at a uniform rate in the solar neighborhood for the last five billion years. Using this hypothesis and the observed luminosity function, the rate of star creation as a function of stellar mass is calculated. The total number and mass of stars which have moved off the main sequence is found to be comparable with the total number of white dwarfs and with the total mass of all fainter main-sequence stars, respectively.
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Citations
Cited by
Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
Chabrier, G. (2003) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1086/376392 · Cited by 9,071
On the variation of the initial mass function
Kroupa, P. (2001) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04022.x · Cited by 7,499
STAR FORMATION IN GALAXIES ALONG THE HUBBLE SEQUENCE
Kennicutt, R. C. (1998) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.36.1.189 · Cited by 6,578
Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
Leitherer, C., Schaerer, D., Goldader, J. D., Delgado, R. M. G., Robert, C., Kune, D. F., de Mello, D. F., Devost, D., & Heckman, T. M. (1999) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1086/313233 · Cited by 4,126
Synthesis of the Elements in Stars
Burbidge, E. M., Burbidge, G. R., Fowler, W. A., & Hoyle, F. (1957) · Reviews of Modern Physics · doi:10.1103/revmodphys.29.547 · Cited by 3,991
Metadata
- Authors
- Salpeter, E. E.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 1955-01
- Volume
- 121
- Pages
- 161
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W2015295900
- Cited by
- 8,697
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 4.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Salpeter, E. E. (1955). The Luminosity Function and Stellar Evolution. The Astrophysical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1086/145971
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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