An infrared survey of the central 650 arcmin2 of the Coma cluster is used
to determine the H band luminosity function for the cluster. Redshifts are
available for all galaxies in the survey with H<14.5, and for this sample
we obtain a good fit to a Schechter function with H∗=11.13 and
α=−0.78. These luminosity function parameters are similar to those
measured for field galaxies in the infrared, which is surprising considering
the very different environmental densities and, presumably, merger histories
for field galaxies. For fainter galaxies, we use two independent techniques to
correct for field galaxy contamination in the cluster population: the B−R
color-magnitude relation and an estimate for the level of background and
foreground contamination from the literature. Using either method we find a
steep upturn for galaxies with 14<H<16, with slope α≃1.7.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures Accepted by ApJ Letter