We quantify the systematic effects on the stellar mass function which arise from assumptions about the stellar population, as well as how one fits the light profiles of the most luminous galaxies at z ∼ 0.1. When comparing results from the literature, we are careful to separate out these effects. Our analysis shows that while systematics in the estimated comoving number density which arise from...

We present improved visual and near-infrared empirical mass-luminosity relations for very low mass stars (M<0.6 M). These relations make use of all stellar masses in this range known with better than 10% accuracy, most of which are new determinations with 0.2 to 5% accuracy from our own programme, presented in a companion paper. As predicted by stellar structure models, the metallicity dispersi...

Observations of active stars reveal highly non-uniform surface distributions of magnetic flux. Theoretical models considering magnetised stellar winds however often presume uniform surface magnetic fields, characterised by a single magnetic field strength. The present work investigates the impact of non-uniform surface magnetic field distributions on the stellar mass and angular momentum loss r...

The empirically determined universal power-law shape of X-ray luminosity function of high mass X-ray binaries in galaxies is explained by fundamental mass-luminosity and mass-radius relations for massive stars. The unique possibilities offerred by modern X-ray space observatories Chandra and XMM-Newton make it possible to observe point-like X-ray sources in nearby galaxies which allows studies ...

We present an analysis of the predictions made by the GALFORM semi-analytic galaxy formation model for the evolution of the relationship between stellar mass and halo mass. We show that for the standard implementations of supernova feedback and gas reincorporation used in semianalytic models, this relationship is predicted to evolve weakly over the redshift range 0 < z < 4. Modest evolution in ...

Recent X-ray observations of galaxies with ROSAT, ASCA, and Chandra have revealed numerous bright off-center point sources which, if isotropic emitters, are likely to be intermediate-mass black holes, with M ∼ 102−4 M⊙. The origin of these objects is under debate, but observations suggest that a significant number of them currently reside in young high-density stellar clusters. There is also gr...

We show that different stellar mass estimation methods yield overall mass scales that disagree by factors up to ∼2 for the galaxy population and, more importantly, relative mass scales that sometimes disagree by z p 0 factors 3 between distinct classes of galaxies (spiral/irregular types, classical E/S0s, and E/S0s whose colors reflect recent star formation). This comparison considers stellar m...