Luminosity and mass functions of the three main sequences of the globular cluster NGC 2808

High-precision HST photometry has revealed that the globular cluster (GC) NGC 2808 hosts a triple main sequence (MS) corresponding to three stellar populations with different helium abundances. We carried out photometry on ACS/WFC HST images of NGC 2808 with the main purpose of measuring the luminosity function (LF) of stars in the three different MSs, and the binary fraction in the cluster. We used isochrones to transform the observed LFs into mass functions (MFs). We estimate that the fraction of binary systems in NGC 2808 is fbin ≃ 0.05, and find that the three MSs have very similar LFs. The slopes of the corresponding MFs are α = -1.2 ± 0.3 for the red MS, α = -0.9 ± 0.3 for the middle MS, and α = -0.9 ± 0.4 for the blue one, the same, to within the errors. There is marginal evidence of a MF flattening for masses ℳ ≤ 0.6ℳsun for the the reddest (primordial) MS. These results represent the first direct measurement of the present-day MF and LF in distinct stellar populations of a GC, and provide constraints on models of the formation and evolution of multiple generations of stars in these objects. Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555, under the programs GO-9899 and GO-10922.Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org