Related papers: An assessment of the evidence from ATLAS3D for a v…
Dust is important for star formation because it is the crucial component that couples gas to stellar radiation fields, allowing radiation feedback to influence gas fragmentation and thus the stellar initial mass function (IMF). Variations…
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…
The present paper extends our previous theory of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) by including the time-dependence, and by including the impact of magnetic field. The predicted mass spectra are similar to the time independent ones…
Our understanding of galaxy properties and evolution is contingent on knowing the initial mass function (IMF), and yet to date, the IMF is constrained only to local galaxies. Individual stars are now becoming routinely detected at…
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…
Recent studies proposed that cosmic rays (CR) are a key ingredient in setting the conditions for star formation, thanks to their ability to alter the thermal and chemical state of dense gas in the UV-shielded cores of molecular clouds. In…
We have used a suite of simplified spectrophotometric spiral galaxy evolution models to argue that there are substantial variations in stellar mass-to-light ratios (M/Ls) within and among galaxies, amounting to factors of between 3 and 7 in…
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…
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…
It has been shown recently that the dynamical V-band mass-to-light ratios of compact stellar systems with masses from 10^6 to 10^8 Solar masses are not consistent with the predictions from simple stellar population (SSP) models. Top-heavy…
Chemical and photometric models of elliptical galaxies with infall of primordial gas, and subsequent ejection of processed material via galactic winds, are described. Ensuring that these models are consistent with the present-day…
The turnover in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) at low mass suggests the presence of two independent mass functions that combine in different ways above and below a characteristic mass given by the thermal Jeans mass in the cloud.…
Crucial for star formation is the interplay between gravity and turbulence. The observed cloud virial parameter, $\alpha_{\mathrm{vir}}$, which is the ratio of twice the turbulent kinetic energy to the gravitational energy, is found to vary…
The dichotomy between a universal mass function (IMF) and a variable IMF which depends on local physical parameters characterises observational and theoretical stellar astronomy. In this contribution the available distributions of…
A stochastic model of fragmentation of molecular clouds has been developed for studying the resulting Initial Mass Function (IMF) where the number of fragments, inter-occurrence time of fragmentation, masses and velocities of the fragments…
The initial mass function (IMF) is one of the most important functions in astrophysics because it is key to reconstructing the cosmological matter cycle, understanding the formation of super-massive black holes, and deciphering the light…
The galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function (IGIMF) of a galaxy is thought to depend on its star formation rate (SFR). Using a catalogue of observational properties of early-type galaxies (ETGs) and a relation that correlates the…
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…
We test whether the universal initial mass function (UIMF) or the integrated galaxial IMF (IGIMF) can be employed to explain the metallicity distribution (MD) of giants in the Galactic bulge. We make use of a single-zone chemical evolution…
The solar neighbourhood is populated by nearby, young moving groups (NYMGs) of stars that are candidates to be remnants of individual stellar clusters and associations, currently dispersing in the galactic disc. To derive the initial mass…