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Related papers: Variations in the initial mass function in early-t…

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The heavyweight stellar initial mass function (IMF) observed in the cores of massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) has been linked to formation of their cores in an initial swiftly-quenched rapid starburst. However, the outskirts of ETGs are…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-04-19 Padraig D. Alton , Russell J. Smith , John R. Lucey

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

It is now well-established that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) can be determined from the absorption line spectra of old stellar systems, and this has been used to measure the IMF and its variation across the early-type galaxy…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-03-22 Charlie Conroy , Pieter van Dokkum , Alexa Villaume

Observational and theoretical arguments increasingly suggest that the initial mass function (IMF) of stars may depend systematically on environment, yet most galaxy formation models to date assume a universal IMF. Here we investigate…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-11-26 Thales A. Gutcke , Volker Springel

Using integral field spectroscopy, we demonstrate that gravity-sensitive absorption features in the zJ-band (0.9--1.35 \micron) can constrain the low-mass stellar initial mass function (IMF) in the cores of two elliptical galaxies, M85 and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-05-01 R. Elliot Meyer , Suresh Sivanandam , Dae-Sik Moon

The local stellar mass density is observed to be significantly lower than the value obtained from integrating the cosmic star formation history (SFH), assuming that all the stars formed with a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF). Even…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Stephen M. Wilkins , Andrew M. Hopkins , Neil Trentham , Rita Tojeiro

The recently inferred variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) among local high-mass early-type galaxies may require a reinterpretation of observations of galaxy populations and may have important consequences for the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-07-17 Christopher Barber , Robert A. Crain , Joop Schaye

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-12-22 Pavel Kroupa , Tereza Jerabkova

Few topics in astronomy initiate such vigorous discussion as whether or not the initial mass function (IMF) of stars is universal, or instead sensitive to the initial conditions of star formation. The distinction is of critical importance:…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-18 Nate Bastian , Kevin R. Covey , Michael R. Meyer

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…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-28 Michele Fumagalli , Robert L. da Silva , Mark R. Krumholz

We present new evidence for a variable stellar initial mass function (IMF) in massive early-type galaxies, using high-resolution, near-infrared spectroscopy from the Folded-port InfraRed Echellette spectrograph (FIRE) on the Magellan Baade…

The initial mass function (IMF) is a construct that describes the distribution of stellar masses for a newly formed population of stars. It is a fundamental element underlying all of star and galaxy formation, and has been the subject of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-03-26 Diego Salvador , Andrew Hopkins , Matt Owers , Themiya Nanayakkara , Scott Croom

Variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) have been invoked to explain the spectroscopic and dynamical properties of early-type galaxies. However, no observations have yet been able to disentangle the physical driver. We analyse…

It is well established that the [alpha/Fe] ratios in elliptical galaxies increase with galaxy mass. This relation holds also for early-type dwarf galaxies, although it seems to steepen at low masses. The [alpha/Fe] vs. mass relation can be…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-20 Simone Recchi , Francesco Calura , Pavel Kroupa

We calculate the integrated galactic initial stellar mass function (IGIMF) in the presence of IMF variations in clusters. IMF Variations for a population of clusters are taken into account in the form of Gaussian distributions of the IMF…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-10-19 Sami Dib

The complexity of constraining the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in early-type galaxies cannot be overstated, given the necessity of both very high signal-to-noise (S/N) data and the difficulty of breaking the strong degeneracies that…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-10-27 Ilaria Lonoce , Anja Feldmeier-Krause , Wendy L. Freedman

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 long-standing assumption that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal has recently been challenged by a number of observations. Several studies have shown that a "heavy" IMF (e.g., with a Salpeter-like abundance of low mass…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-17 Brendon J. Brewer , Philip J. Marshall , Matthew W. Auger , Tommaso Treu , Aaron A. Dutton , Matteo Barnabè

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 analyze the stellar initial mass functions (IMF) of a large sample of early type galaxies (ETGs) provided by MaNGA. The large number of IFU spectra of individual galaxies provide high signal-to-noise composite spectra that are essential…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-03-20 Shuang Zhou , H. J. Mo , Cheng Li , Zheng Zheng , Niu Li , Cheng Du , Shude Mao , Taniya Parikh , Richard R. Lane , Daniel Thomas