The corporation has narrowed the number of presidential candidates to 23, according to a second, essentially definitive list of contenders released to selected students and faculty last week.

The new set of names, pared down from a tentative list of 69 that began circulating on November 9, includes three new names-all from academia-and omits all public figures considered earlier.

Half of the men still under consideration are from Harvard faculties, including five deans-John T. Dunlop, Derek C. Bok, Robert H. Ebert, Theodore Sizer, and Harvey Brooks. The youngest man continues to be Roger Rosenblatt, 29, acting Master of Dunster House and assistant professor of English. He is the only man on the list who is not a full professor.

The three new persons on the list are Richard N. Cooper, 36, professor of Economics at Yale; Robert M. Solow, 46, M. I. T. professor of Economics, and Robert R. Wilson, 56, director of the National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.

As with the first list of 69, this one is characterized by a heavy emphasis on scientists (11) and economists (7). Of the 12 university presidents on the first public list, only two-Clifton R. Wharton, president of Michigan State University and Robben W. Fleming, president of the University of Michigan-remain under consideration. Wharton is the only black on the list.

Although the second list is still termed "fluid" by Corporation members, only a major deadlock among Corporation members or the strongest of recommendations from prominent faculty groups might lead to consideration of other candidates.

The 23 names were presented to the University Committee on Governance on November 23, following a short meeting of the full Board of Overseers that morning and a two-hour discussion between representatives of the Corporation and the executive committee of the Overseers the day before.

The revised list has been circulating semipublicly through the Faculty since last Monday. Over 15 student and faculty groups have been asked to comment on the people, in separate meetings with Corporation members.

More significant than the three new additions is the number of persons conspicuously dropped from consideration. Ernest R. May, dean of the College; Archibald Cox, Williston Professor of Law; William G. Bowen, provost at Princeton, and Edwin O. Reischauer, University Professor, fall into this category. All have been previously been considered strong candidates.

"If we concluded that the man we want is not on the list of 23, it's difficult to say what we would do," one Corporation member said yesterday. "It would depend on who he is and how well known he is."

"We've taken names off the list when wemade tentative decisions before," he added, "but we have reversed ourselves before and it's possible we could do it again."

The 23 men still under consideration are:

Bernard Bailyn, 48, chairman of the Harvard History Department;

Derek C. Bok, 40, dean of Harvard Law School;

Harvey Brooks, 55, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Physics;

Richard N. Cooper, 36, professor of Economics at Yale;

William H. Danforth, 44, dean of the Washington University Medical School;

Paul Doty, 50, Harvard professor of Biochemistry and former chairman of the Chemistry Department;

John T. Dunlop, 56, dean of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences;

Robert H. Ebert, 56, dean of Harvard Medical School;

Robben W. Fleming, 54, president of the University of Michigan since 1968 and former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin;

Edwin L. Goldwasser, 51, development director of the National Accelerator Laboratory and professor of Physics at the University of Illinois;

David A. Hamburg, 45, chairman of the Psychiatry Department at the Stanford Medical School;

G. Alexander Heard, 53, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University since 1963, special advisor to the President on campus unrest in 1970;

Carl Kaysen, 50, director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, former Littauer Professor of Political Economy at Harvard;

Donald Kennedy, 39, chairman of the Stanford Biology Department, newly elected Harvard overseer;

Matthew Meselson, 40, Harvard professor of Biology;

Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky, 51, director of Stanford Linear Accelerator;

Edward M. Purcell, 58, Gade University Professor of Physics at Harvard, Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1962;

Roger Rosenblatt, 29, Harvard assistant professor of English and Acting Master of Dunster House;

Henry Rosovsky, 43, chairman of the Harvard Economics Department;

Theodore R. Sizer, 38, dean of the Harvard School of Education;

Robert M. Solow, 46, M. I. T. professor of Economics;

Clifton R. Wharton, Jr., 46, president of Michigan State University since 1969;

Robert R. Wilson, 56, director of the National Accelerator Laboratory in Batayia, Ill., and professor of Physics at the University of Chicago.