H II regions in southern spiral galaxies: The H alpha luminosity function

By using narrow-band filters to measure the H alpha flux, a catalog of H II regions in several spiral galaxies was made, consisting of the position and flux of the objects. For each galaxy the H alpha luminosity function was derived. From the observed sample, two galaxies were found to have type II luminosity functions. Some simple models were made in order to understand the nature of the luminosity function (both type I and type II). The goal of our work was to simulate how a change of star-forming region, the cluster-mass distribution, or the initial mass function (in an evolutionary environment) can change the shape of the luminosity function.