Related papers: From Molecular Clouds to the IMF: Spatial and Temp…
Accurate specification of a likelihood function is becoming increasingly difficult in many inference problems in astronomy. As sample sizes resulting from astronomical surveys continue to grow, deficiencies in the likelihood function lead…
We propose to interpret the stellar IMF as a property of the turbulence in the star--forming gas. Gravitationally unstable density enhancements in the turbulent flow collapse and form stars. Their mass distribution can be derived…
The birth of stars and the formation of galaxies are cornerstones of modern astrophysics. While much is known about how galaxies globally and their stars individually form and evolve, one fundamental property that affects both remains…
The stellar initial-mass function (IMF) represents a fundamental quantity in astrophysics and cosmology, describing the mass distribution of stars from low to very-high masses. It is intimately linked to a wide variety of topics, including…
Recent studies of dense clumps/cores in a number of regions of low-mass star formation have shown that the mass distribution of these clumps closely resembles the initial mass function (IMF) of field stars. One possible interpretation of…
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…
We show that the ambipolar-diffusion--initiated fragmentation of molecular clouds leads simply and naturally to an initial core mass function (CMF) which is very similar to the initial stellar mass function (IMF) and in excellent agreement…
Magnetic fields are often invoked as playing a primary role in star formation and in the formation of high-mass stars. We investigate the effect of magnetic fields on the formation of high-mass cores using the 3-dimensional smoothed…
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…
We show that the same initial mass function (IMF) can result from very different modes of star formation from very similar underlying core and/or system mass functions. In particular, we show that the canonical IMF can be recovered from…
One of the key observations regarding the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is its near-universality in the Milky Way (MW), which provides a powerful way to constrain different star formation models that predict the IMF. However, those…
The theory for the formation of the first population of stars (Pop III) predicts an initial mass function (IMF) dominated by high-mass stars, in contrast to the present-day IMF, which tends to yield mostly stars with masses less than 1…
We discuss several categories of models which may explain the IMF, including the possible role of turbulence and magnetic fields.
Three component models of the IMF are made to consider possible origins for the observed relative variations in the numbers of brown dwarfs, solar-to-intermediate mass stars, and high mass stars. Three distinct physical processes are noted.…
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…
When a detailed model of a stellar population is unavailable, it is most common to assume that stellar masses are independently and identically distributed according to some distribution: the universal initial mass function (IMF). However,…
The Padoan and Nordlund model of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is derived from low order statistics of supersonic turbulence, neglecting gravity (e.g. gravitational fragmentation, accretion and merging). In this work the…
We examine the effect of magnetic fields on star cluster formation by performing simulations following the self-gravitating collapse of a turbulent molecular cloud to form stars in ideal MHD. The collapse of the cloud is computed for global…
Molecular clouds are prime locations to study the process of star formation. These clouds contain filamentary structures and cores, which are crucial sites for the formation of young stars. The star-formation process has been investigated…
Peaks and lulls in the star formation rate (SFR) over the history of the Galaxy produce plateaux and declines in the present day mass function (PDMF) where the main-sequence lifetime overlaps the age and duration of the SFR variation. These…