For this stellar population, let denote initial mass in units of the solar mass, and let denote present stellar age. Constant formation of equal numbers of stars per unit time makes the stellar age a uniform distribution on Gyr, so is uniform on . The normalized initial mass function has probability density function for , since . Consequently
These formulae have the stated age and mass domains; outside them the relevant cumulative fractions saturate at zero or one. The probability integral transform makes uniform on : gives . The time-independent initial mass function and constant number formation rate give independence of and . All fractions here count objects, including white dwarfs, using the stipulated stellar evolution law.
A red giant has
Thus the mass boundaries are and for positive . Equivalently, for the red giant region runs from to the age cap , and for it runs from to . There are no red giants with . Boundaries have zero probability and their endpoint convention does not affect the fractions. In the uniform square the red giant region is , with triangle vertices , and . The white dwarf region is the triangle .
Figure 1.
Mass-age regions and their uniform-coordinate images
. The right panel magnifies the evolved part of the unit square. All of the remaining region at larger X is main sequence.
At fixed , define the conditional probabilities of a red giant, white dwarf and main sequence star by , and . Their interval widths are
Integration over the uniform distribution of age gives the individual-star fractions
The systems form a coeval binary population: the two binary star components have the same age. Their masses are independent, so has uniform probability density function on and their states have conditional independence given . Unconditional independence of their states would be incorrect: older systems make both evolved states more likely. The law of total probability now gives
The subtraction removes the double counting of systems containing two red giants.