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Related papers: The Stellar Initial Mass Function in Early-Type Ga…

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To investigate possible variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in red-sequence galaxies, we have obtained infrared spectroscopy with Subaru/FMOS for a sample of 92 red-sequence galaxies in the Coma cluster. Velocity…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-05 Russell J. Smith , John R. Lucey , David Carter

We investigate the most plausible stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) and the main origin of the tilt of the Fundamental Plane (FP) for old, massive early-type galaxies. We consider a sample of 13 bright galaxies of the Coma cluster and…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-14 C. Grillo , R. Gobat

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a key parameter to study galaxy evolution. Here we measure the IMF mass normalization for a sample of 68 field galaxies in the redshift range 0.7 to 0.9 within the Extended Groth Strip. To do this…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2014-06-19 Shravan Shetty , Michele Cappellari

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 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…

Observations of both galaxies in the distant Universe and local starbursts are showing increasing evidence for very hard ionizing spectra that stellar population synthesis models struggle to reproduce. Here we explore the effects of the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-01-23 E. R. Stanway , J. J. Eldridge

Research on the high-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF) has been limited due to a scarcity of samples. Recently, Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), as the most efficient spectroscopic telescope, has…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-05-21 Qida Li , Jianping Xiong , Zhenwei Li , Dan Qiu , Chao Liu , Zhanwen Han , Xuefei Chen

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) describes the distribution of stellar masses that form in a given star formation event. The long main-sequence lifetimes of low-mass stars mean that the IMF in this regime (below $\sim 1…

The initial mass function (IMF) succinctly characterizes a stellar population, provides a statistical measure of the end result of the star-formation process, and informs our under- standing of the structure and dynamical evolution of…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2011-07-25 Kevin R. Covey , Nate Bastian , Michael R. Meyer

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-05-29 Zhiqiang Yan , Jiadong Li , Pavel Kroupa , Tereza Jerabkova , Eda Gjergo , Zhi-Yu Zhang

We perform a spectroscopic study to constrain the stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) by using a large sample of 24,781 early-type galaxies from the SDSS-based SPIDER survey. Clear evidence is found of a trend between IMF and central…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 F. La Barbera , I. Ferreras , A. Vazdekis , I. G. de la Rosa , R. R. de Carvalho , M. Trevisan , J. Falcón-Barroso , E. Ricciardelli

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-03-14 M. W. Hosek , J. R. Lu , M. Andersen , T. Do , D. Kim , N. Z. Rui , P. Boyle , B. F. Williams , S. Chakrabarti , R. L. Beaton

Star formation in the early Universe has left its imprint on the chemistry of observable stars in galaxies. We derive elemental abundances and the slope of the low-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF) for a sample of 25 very massive…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-04-08 Mark den Brok , Davor Krajnović , Eric Emsellem , Wilfried Mercier , Matthias Steinmetz , Peter M. Weilbacher

The observed stellar initial mass function (IMF) appears to vary, becoming bottom-heavy in the centres of the most massive, metal-rich early-type galaxies. It is still unclear what physical processes might cause this IMF variation. In this…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-10-07 Timothy A. Davis , Freeke van de Voort

In this paper we investigate whether the stellar initial mass function of early-type galaxies depends on their host environment. To this purpose, we have selected a sample of early-type galaxies from the SPIDER catalogue, characterized…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-03-14 Giulio Rosani , Anna Pasquali , Francesco La Barbera , Ignacio Ferreras , Alexandre Vazdekis

Stellar population studies of massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) suggest that the stellar initial mass function may not be universal. In particular, the centres of ETGs seem to contain an excess of low-mass dwarf stars compared to our own…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-02-12 Taniya Parikh , Roberto Saglia , Jens Thomas , Kianusch Mehrgan , Ralf Bender , Claudia Maraston

In this contributed talk I present recent results on the connection between stellar population properties and the normalisation of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) measured using stellar dynamics, based on a large sample of 260…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-23 Richard M. McDermid

The presence (and nature) of variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) at substantially sub-solar masses and metallicities ($m$$<$0.5M$_{\odot}$, [M/H]$\lesssim$$-$1) remains poorly constrained. Predictions from simulations vary…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-03-17 Roger E. Cohen , Mario Gennaro , Matteo Correnti , Kristen B. W. McQuinn , Vedant Chandra

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

Theoretical arguments and indirect observational evidence suggest that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) may evolve with time, such that it is more weighted toward high mass stars at higher redshift. Here we test this idea by…

Astrophysics · Physics 2010-01-07 Pieter van Dokkum