The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is the key to understanding the matter cycle in the Universe. Edwin Salpeter's paper of 1955 founded this research field. Evidence today, however, challenges the initial mass function as an invariant probability distribution function.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1910.01126,
title = {The Salpeter IMF and its descendants},
author = {Pavel Kroupa and Tereza Jerabkova},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.01126},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
published in Nature Astronomy, Vol.3, p.481-484 (2019) as News and Views, 3 pages, 1 figure