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Related papers: The initial mass function of early-type galaxies

200 papers

We present a new technique for the determination of the low-mass slope ($\alpha_1$; $M_* < 0.5 M_{\odot}$) of the present day stellar mass function (PDMF) using the pixel space fitting of integrated light spectra. It can be used to…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 Nikolay Podorvanyuk , Igor Chilingarian , Ivan Katkov

The debate about the universality of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) revolves around two competing lines of evidence. While measurements in the Milky Way, an archetypal spiral galaxy, seem to support an invariant IMF, the observed…

The stellar initial-mass function (IMF) represents a fundamental quantity in astrophysics and cosmology, describing the mass distribution of stars from low to very-high masses. It is intimately linked to a wide variety of topics, including…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-09-17 Francesco Gabrielli , Lumen Boco , Giancarlo Ghirlanda , Om Sharan Salafia , Ruben Salvaterra , Mario Spera , Andrea Lapi

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-01-31 Jiadong Li , Chao Liu , Zhi-Yu Zhang , Hao Tian , Xiaoting Fu , Jiao Li , Zhi-Qiang Yan

We investigate the cosmic evolution of the internal structure of massive early-type galaxies over half of the age of the Universe. We perform a joint lensing and stellar dynamics analysis of a sample of 81 strong lenses from the SL2S and…

We explore the assumption, widely used in many astrophysical calculations, that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal across all galaxies. By considering both a canonical Salpeter-like IMF and a non-universal IMF, we are able…

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is believed to be non-universal among early-type galaxies (ETGs). Parameterizing the IMF with the so-called IMF mismatch parameter $\alpha_{\rm IMF}$, which is a measure of the stellar mass-to-light…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-10-14 Carlo Nipoti , Carlo Cannarozzo , Francesco Calura , Alessandro Sonnenfeld , Tommaso Treu

We present the results on the stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) normalisation of 68 massive ($M_\ast=10^{11}-10^{12}$$M_\odot$) Early-Type Galaxies (ETGs) at redshift of $\sim$1. This was achieved by deriving the stellar Mass-to-Light…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-23 Shravan Shetty , Michele Cappellari

The Initial Mass Function (IMF) for massive galaxies can be constrained by combining stellar dynamics with strong gravitational lensing. However, this method is limited by degeneracies between the density profile of dark matter and the…

Observations with JWST have revealed an unexpected high abundance of bright z>10 galaxy candidates. We explore whether a stellar initial mass function (IMF) that becomes increasingly top-heavy towards higher redshifts and lower gas-phase…

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…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 Anna Ferré-Mateu , Alexandre Vazdekis , Ignacio G. de la Rosa

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is expressed by $\phi(m) \propto m^{-\alpha}$ with the slope $\alpha$, and known as the poorly-constrained but very important function in studies of star and galaxy formation. There are no sensible…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-04-13 Shohei Aoyama , Masami Ouchi , Yuichi Harikane

There is good evidence that the centers of massive early-type galaxies have a bottom-heavy stellar initial mass function (IMF) compared to the IMF of the Milky Way. Here we study the radial variation of the IMF within such galaxies, using a…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-05-31 Pieter van Dokkum , Charlie Conroy , Alexa Villaume , Jean Brodie , Aaron Romanowsky

We derive a semi-empirical galactic initial mass function (IMF) from observational constraints. We assume that the star formation rate in a galaxy can be expressed as the product of the IMF, $\psi (m)$, which is a smooth function of mass…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-20 Antonio Parravano , Christopher F. McKee , David J. Hollenbach

The ATLAS3D Survey has reported evidence for a non-universal stellar initial mass function (IMF) for early type galaxies (ETGs) (Cappellari et al. 2012, 2013b,a). The IMF was constrained by comparing stellar mass measurements from kinematic…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-19 Bart Clauwens , Joop Schaye , Marijn Franx

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is thought to be bottom-heavy in the cores of the most massive galaxies, with an excess of low mass stars compared to the Milky Way. However, studies of the kinematics of quiescent galaxies at 2<z<5…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-09-10 Pieter van Dokkum , Charlie Conroy

The high-mass slope of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), first measured by E. Salpeter in 1955, appears universal across star-forming environments. Its origin remains a central unsolved problem in astrophysics. Using $getsf$, we…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-05-22 Guo-Yin Zhang , Alexander Men'shchikov , Jin-Zeng Li

The manner in which the stellar initial mass function (IMF) scales with global galaxy properties is under debate. We use two hydrodynamical, cosmological simulations to predict possible trends for two self-consistent variable IMF…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-10-22 Christopher Barber , Joop Schaye , Robert A. Crain

Several independent lines of evidence suggest that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in early-type galaxies becomes increasingly `bottom-heavy' with increasing galaxy mass and/or velocity dispersion, sigma. Here we consider evidence…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-16 Charlie Conroy , Aaron A. Dutton , Genevieve J. Graves , J. Trevor Mendel , Pieter G. van Dokkum

We investigate whether the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal, or whether it varies significantly among young stellar clusters in the Milky Way. We propose a method to uncover the range of variation of the parameters that…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-10-30 Sami Dib , Stefan Schmeja , Sacha Hony