Related papers: Theories of the initial mass function
We perform a large set of radiation hydrodynamics simulations of primordial star formation in a fully cosmological context. Our statistical sample of 100 First Stars show that the first generation of stars have a wide mass distribution…
The initial mass function (IMF) is an essential tool with which to study star formation processes. We have initiated the photometric survey of young open clusters in the Galaxy, from which the stellar IMFs are obtained in a homogeneous way.…
The evolution of the global stellar mass function (MF) of star clusters is studied based on a large set of N-body simulations of clusters with a range of initial masses, initial concentrations, in circular or elliptical orbits in different…
Does the IMF vary? Is it significantly different in metal-rich environments than in metal-poor ones? Theoretical work predicts this to be the case. But in order to provide robust empirical evidence for this, the researcher must understand…
We examine the initial mass functions (IMFs) of stars produced by different molecular core mass functions. Simulations suggest that more massive cores produce more stars, so we propose a model in which the average number of stars formed in…
We report a set of numerical experiments aimed at addressing the applicability of competitive accretion to explain the high-mass end of the stellar initial mass function in a sheet geometry with shallow gravitational potential, in contrast…
We perform a three dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulation to investigate the formation of first stars from initial collapse of a primordial gas cloud to formation and growth of protostars. The simulation is integrated until 0.1 Myrs…
Stars form from dense molecular cores, and the mass function of these cores (the CMF) is often found to be similar to the form of the stellar initial mass function (IMF). This suggests that the form of the IMF is the result of the form of…
The first stars fundamentally transformed the early universe by emitting the first light and by producing the first heavy elements. These effects were predetermined by the mass distribution of the first stars, which is thought to have been…
Supersonic turbulence fragments the interstellar medium into dense sheets, filaments, cores and large low density voids. The turbulence is driven on large scales, probably predominantly by supernovae. The scaling properties of supersonic…
(Abriged) At present, there are two scenarios for the formation of massive stars: 1) The accretion scenario and 2) The coalescence scenario, which implies the merging of intermediate mass stars. We examine here some properties of the first…
Schneider et al. (Science, 2018) used an ad hoc statistical method in their calculation of the stellar initial mass function. Adopting an improved approach, we reanalyse their data and determine a power law exponent of…
We develop a statistical approach for description of dense structures (cores) in molecular clouds that might be progenitors of stars. Our basic assumptions are a core mass-density relationship and a power-law density distribution of these…
Given a flurry of recent claims for systematic variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF), we carry out the first inventory of the observational evidence using different approaches. This includes literature results, as well as…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) determines the relative number of stars born at a given mass. Despite the tremendous effort to establish a universal IMF, the astronomical literature offers a wealth of diverse evidence for IMF…
We use the block model to generate merger trees for the first star clusters in a LCDM cosmology. Using a simple collapse model and cooling criterion, we determine which halos are able to form stars before being disrupted by mergers. We…
It is usually assumed that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) takes a universal form and that there exists a direct mapping between this and the distribution of natal core masses (the core mass function, CMF). The IMF and CMF have been…
We discuss possible sources of biases in the determination of the initial mass function (IMF) introduced by the binning of the data, the uncertainty in the determinations of masses, and the existence of unresolved multiple systems. Those…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental property of star formation, offering key insight into the physics driving the process as well as informing our understanding of stellar populations, their by-products, and their…
The Gaia mission has provided precise astrometry and spectrophotometry for billions of stars in the Milky Way, enabling the identification and kinematic characterization of stellar streams. These streams, remnants of disrupted globular…