Astrophysics (Index)About

monochromatic luminosity

(luminosity at a specific wavelength)

Monochromatic luminosity can be thought of as an astronomical object's total power output at a specific wavelength or frequency. (An interval of the spectrum of zero width will have zero power and the monochromatic luminosity is a value of a distribution function, which over a finite interval yields the finite power over that interval.) The power output over all wavelengths is termed the bolometric luminosity and is often what is meant by (plain) luminosity.

It is of note that an object's monochromatic luminosity per wavelength and that per frequency differ at the same point on the object's spectrum, the same curiosity as occurs with specific intensity. The relation between them is:

Lf dLf = Lw dLw

This is typical of distribution functions: they always depend upon what you are distributing over.


(EMR,luminosity,measure)
Further reading:
http://burro.cwru.edu/Academics/Astr221/Light/blackbody.html
https://ipag.osug.fr/~bacmanna/radiativetransfer/rt2-radiativequantities.pdf
https://www.roe.ac.uk/~pnb/teaching/obs_astro_2011.pdf

Referenced by page:
luminosity (L)

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