Kevin Luhman

Harvard

"The Initial Mass Function of Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs"

I present measurements of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) representative
to 0.01-0.02 solar masses for the young clusters of the Trapezium, IC 348,
and Rho Oph and the isolated star forming region of Taurus. The IMFs
of the three young clusters, Taurus, the Pleiades open cluster, the field, and
globular clusters are compared.  I test the predictions of theories
of the IMF against 1) the shape of the IMF in clusters, 2) the similarity
of the IMFs among young clusters, 3) the distinct difference in the IMFs 
of isolated and clustered modes of star formation, and 4) the lowest mass
observed to date for brown dwarfs.