Title: The Validity of Mass Functions for the Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae
Abstract: It is commonly assumed that the distribution of masses for the central stars of planetary nebulae is strongly peaked about MCS ≅ 0.6 M☉. Such a mass function is similar to that deduced for white dwarfs. We show in the following, however, that certain of the procedures used to evaluate N(MCS) are seriously flawed and assume a nebular mass MNEB that is probably inappropriate. At the very least, the uncertainty in MNEB casts doubts upon the utility of these procedures, while the deduced functions N(MCS) may be in error.