How Can Galaxy Mass Be Estimated from K-Band Luminosity?

Chronos000
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Homework Statement



I'm trying to understand how the mass of a galaxy at redshift 1 can be estimated by knowing its luminosity in the K-band. I've been told you are able to use the IMF but I'm not sure of the details. I really don't see how you could use the salpeter, or the luminosity function as this requires the volume. I do have the half light radius but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to use this. A nudge in the right direction would be a great help!
 
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Homework Equations I'm not sure what equations would be relevant hereThe Attempt at a Solution I'm really not sure how to answer this question.
 
To solve this, I first used the units to work out that a= m* a/m, i.e. t=z/λ. This would allow you to determine the time duration within an interval section by section and then add this to the previous ones to obtain the age of the respective layer. However, this would require a constant thickness per year for each interval. However, since this is most likely not the case, my next consideration was that the age must be the integral of a 1/λ(z) function, which I cannot model.
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