Statistical Confirmation of a Stellar Upper Mass Limit
Astrophysics
2016-08-30 v1
Abstract
We derive the expectation value for the maximum stellar mass (m_max) in an ensemble of N stars, as a function of the IMF upper-mass cutoff (m_up) and N. We statistically demonstrate that the upper IMF of the local massive star census observed thus far in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds clearly exhibits a universal upper mass cutoff around 120 - 200 M_sun for a Salpeter IMF, although the result is more ambiguous for a steeper IMF.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0501135,
title = {Statistical Confirmation of a Stellar Upper Mass Limit},
author = {M. S. Oey and C. J. Clarke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0501135},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
PDF, 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters