Related papers: Further evidence for a time-dependent initial mass…
A low mass-to-light ratio for the stellar component of spiral galaxies (M/L<1 in the I-band) is advocated by various dynamical arguments and by recent cosmological simulations of the formation of these systems. We discuss this possibility…
Stars are amongst the most fundamental structures of our Universe. They comprise most of the baryonic and luminous mass of galaxies, synthethise heavy elements, and injec\ t mass, momentum, and energy into the interstellar medium. They are…
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…
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.…
We measure equivalent widths (EW) - focussing on two unique features (NaI and TiO2) of low-mass stars (<0.3M\odot) - for luminous red galaxy spectra from the the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and X-Shooter Lens Survey (XLENS) in order to…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) in the early universe is essential to understand the formation of ancient galaxies. To this end, we conduct a series of long-term radiation hydrodynamic simulations following star cluster formation,…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental astrophysical quantity that impacts a wide range of astrophysical problems from heavy element distribution to galactic evolution to planetary system formation. However, the origin and…
Previous studies of the stellar mean metallicity and [Mg/Fe] values of massive elliptical (E)~galaxies suggest that their stars were formed in a very short timescale which cannot be reconciled with estimates from stellar population…
We present a comparison of the frequencies of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) giant and main-sequence turnoff stars, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration, with…
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…
We study the effects of the integrated galactic initial mass function (IGIMF) and dust evolution on the abundance patterns of high redshift starburst galaxies. In our chemical models, the rapid collapse of gas clouds triggers an intense and…
Any predictive theory of star formation must explain observed variations (or lack thereof) in the initial mass function. Recent work suggests that we might expect quantitative variations in the IMF as a function of metallicity (Larson 2005)…
The INSPIRE project has built the largest sample of ultra-compact massive galaxies (UCMGs) at 0.1<z<0.4 and obtained their star formation histories (SFHs). Due to their preserved very old stellar populations, relics are the perfect systems…
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…
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…
The presented study gives a comprehensive overview of the theory and the evidence for a systematically varying stellar initial mass function (IMF). Then we focus on the impact of this paradigm change, that is, from the universal invariant…
Stars do not form continuously distributed over star forming galaxies. They form in star clusters of different masses. This nature of clustered star formation is taken into account in the theory of the integrated galactic stellar initial…
We use the ZFIRE survey (http://zfire.swinburne.edu.au) to investigate the high mass slope of the initial mass function (IMF) for a mass-complete (log10(M$_*$/M$_\odot$)~9.3) sample of 102 star-forming galaxies at z~2 using their H$\alpha$…
We use recent microlensing observations toward the central bulge of the Galaxy to probe the overall stellar plus brown dwarf initial mass function (IMF) in these regions well within the brown dwarf domain. We find that the IMF is consistent…
Motivated by the recent detection of metals in different components of the high redshift universe and by the abundance ratios measured in the extremely metal-poor stars of our Galaxy, we study the nucleosynthesis constraints that this…