THE ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL      VOLUME 106, NUMBER 2, PAGE 773        AUGUST 1993

    THE MASS-LUMINOSITY RELATION FOR STARS OF MASS 1.0 TO 0.08 SOLAR MASSES

                   TODD J. HENRY AND DONALD W. McCARTHY, Jr.

                  Steward Observatory, Tucson, Arizona 85721
          Electronic mail: thenry@stsci.edu, dmccarthy@as.arizona.edu


                                   ABSTRACT

    Mass-luminosity relations determined at infrared wavelengths are
    presented for stars with masses 1.0 to 0.08 solar masses.  Using
    infrared speckle imaging techniques on a sample of nearby binaries, we
    have been able to concentrate on the lower main sequence (Mass <= 0.5
    solar masses), for which an accurate mass-luminosity calibration has
    remained problematic.  In addition, the mass-visual luminosity
    relation for stars with 2.0 >= Mass >= 0.08 solar masses is produced by
    implementing new photometric relations linking V to JHK wavelengths for
    the nearby stars, supplemented with eclipsing binary information.
    These relations predict that objects with masses ~0.08 solar masses
    have M(K) ~ 10 and M(V) ~ 18.