Related papers: Chemical consequences of low star formation rates:…
Low mass star formation regions are unlikely to fully populate their initial mass functions, leading to a deficit of massive stars. In binary stellar populations, the full range of binary separations and mass ratios will also be…
Most structural and evolutionary properties of galaxies strongly rely on the stellar initial mass function (IMF), namely the distribution of the stellar mass formed in each episode of star formation. As the IMF shapes the stellar population…
When a detailed model of a stellar population is unavailable, it is most common to assume that stellar masses are independently and identically distributed according to some distribution: the universal initial mass function (IMF). However,…
Cosmological simulations are reaching the resolution necessary to study ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. Observations indicate that in small populations, the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is not fully populated; rather, stars are sampled…
The current knowledge on the stellar IMF is documented. It appears to become top-heavy when the star-formation rate density surpasses about 0.1Msun/(yr pc^3) on a pc scale and it may become increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing…
When star clusters are formed at low star-formation rates (SFRs), their stellar initial mass function (IMF) can hardly be filled continuously with stars at each mass. This lack holds for massive stars and is observationally verified by the…
As the total mass of stellar populations of fixed IMF, age and metallicity tends to infinity, resulting intrinsic $M/L$ values quickly converge to fixed numbers associated to the particulars of the stars in question. When going to very…
Stellar chemical element ratios have well-defined systematic trends as a function of abundance, with an excellent correlation of these trends with stellar populations defined kinematically. This is remarkable, and has significant…
(Abridged) The abundance ratios between key elements such as iron and alpha-process elements carry a wealth of information on the star formation history (SFH) of galaxies. So far, simple chemical evolution models have linked [alpha/Fe] with…
The measured star-formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies comprise an important constraint on galaxy evolution and also on their cosmological boundary conditions. Any available tracer of the SFR depends on the shape of the mass-distribution of…
The chemical evolution of galaxies is investigated within the framework of the star formation rate (SFR) dependent integrated galactic initial mass function (IGIMF). We study how the global chemical evolution of a galaxy and in particular…
Recent results on the non-universality of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) have shown strong evidence of IMF variations with galaxy velocity dispersion, with a corresponding impact on other stellar population parameters, line indices and…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is commonly interpreted to be a scale-invariant probability density distribution function (PDF) such that many small clusters yield the same IMF as one massive cluster of the same combined number of…
The first stars fundamentally transformed the early Universe through their production of energetic radiation and the first heavy chemical elements. The impact on cosmic evolution sensitively depends on their initial mass function (IMF),…
The evolution of galaxies is imprinted in their stellar populations. Several stellar population properties in massive early-type galaxies have been shown to correlate with intrinsic galaxy properties like the galaxy's central velocity…
Growing evidence suggests that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) varies systematically across galaxies, deviating from the canonical Milky Way form. Such variations would modify the integrated nucleosynthetic yields, and hence the…
The Stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) characterizes the mass distribution of newly formed stars in various cosmic environments, serving as a fundamental assumption in astrophysical research. Recent findings challenge the prevalent notion…
Recent observations indicate a lower Halpha to FUV ratio in dwarf galaxies than in brighter systems, a trend that could be explained by a truncated and/or steeper IMF in small galaxies. However, at low star formation rates (SFRs), the…
We investigate the intrinsic scatter in the chemical abundances of a sample of metal-poor ([Fe/H]<-2.5) Milky Way halo stars. We draw our sample from four historic surveys and focus our attention on the stellar Mg, Ca, Ni, and Fe…
We investigate the effect of a metallicity-dependent stellar initial mass function (IMF), as deduced observationally by Martin-Navarro et al. (2015c), on the inferred stellar masses and star formation rates (SFRs) of a representative sample…