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The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is predicted to depend upon the temperature of gas in star-forming molecular clouds. The introduction of an additional parameter, $T_{IMF}$ , into photometric template fitting, allows galaxies to be…

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-09-17 Francesco Gabrielli , Lumen Boco , Giancarlo Ghirlanda , Om Sharan Salafia , Ruben Salvaterra , Mario Spera , Andrea Lapi

We consider that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) depends on physical properties of star-forming molecular clouds in galaxies and thereby investigate how such a non-universal IMF (NUIMF) influences galaxy evolution. We incorporate a…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-17 Kenji Bekki

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 rates (SFRs) of galaxies are commonly calculated by converting the measured Halpha luminosities (L_Halpha) into current SFRs. This conversion is based on a constant initial mass function (IMF) independent of the total SFR. As…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-09-12 Jan Pflamm-Altenburg , Carsten Weidner , Pavel Kroupa

We make use of a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation to investigate the origin of the observed correlation between [a/Fe] abundance ratios and stellar mass in elliptical galaxies. We implement a new galaxy-wide stellar initial mass…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-18 I. D. Gargiulo , S. A. Cora , N. D. Padilla , A. M. Muñoz Arancibia , A. N. Ruiz , A. A. Orsi , T. E. Tecce , C. Weidner , G. Bruzual

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

The hypothesis of a universal initial mass function (IMF) -- motivated by observations in nearby stellar systems -- has been recently challenged by the discovery of a systematic variation of the IMF with the central velocity dispersion,…

Because direct measurements require resolved stellar populations including low-mass stars, determining the stellar initial mass function (IMF) has been a historically difficult problem even within our own Galaxy and impossible everywhere…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-03-26 Charles L. Steinhardt , Carter Meyerhoff , Alexander J. Luening

Deviations from a universal, MW-like, Stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) have been reported for distant galaxies, although the physical reason behind the observed variations is still matter of ongoing debate. In this paper, we present an…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-19 Fabio Fontanot

This work presents and releases a catalog of new photometrically-derived physical properties for the $\sim 10^5$ most well-measured galaxies in the COSMOS field on the sky. Using a recently developed technique, spectral energy distributions…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-06-23 Vadim Rusakov , Charles L. Steinhardt , Albert Sneppen

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) of early-type galaxies is the combination of the IMF of the stellar population formed in-situ and that of accreted stellar populations. Using as an observable the effective IMF $\alpha_{IMF}$, defined…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-01-18 Alessandro Sonnenfeld , Carlo Nipoti , Tommaso Treu

We investigate the time evolution and spatial variation of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in star-forming disk galaxies by using chemodynamical simulations with an IMF model depending both on local densities and metallicities…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 Kenji Bekki , Gerhardt R. Meurer

In this work, we want to find out if the IMF can be determined from colour images, integrated colours, or mass-to-light ratios, especially at high redshift, where galaxies cannot be resolved into individual stars, which would enable us to…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 P. Westera , M. Samland , S. J. Kautsch , R. Buser , K. Ammon

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

We summarize recent observational and theoretical progress aimed at understanding the origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) with specific focus on galactic star-forming regions. We synthesize data from various efforts to…

An essential component of galaxy formation theory is the stellar initial mass function (IMF), that describes the parent distribution of stellar mass in star forming regions. We present observational evidence in a sample of early-type…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-05 I. Ferreras , F. La Barbera , R. R. de Carvalho , I. G. de la Rosa , A. Vazdekis , J. Falcon-Barroso , E. Ricciardelli

Interpreting galactic luminosity requires assumptions about the galaxy-wide initial mass function (gwIMF), often assumed invariant in most stellar population synthesis (SPS) models. If stars form in clusters with metallicity- and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-02-07 Akram Hasani Zonoozi , Hosein Haghi , Pavel Kroupa

Recent observational and theoretical studies indicate that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) varies systematically with the environment (star formation rate - SFR, metallicity). Although the exact dependence of the IMF on those…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-04-08 Martyna Chruslinska , Tereza Jerabkova , Gijs Nelemans , Zhiqiang Yan

The aim of this paper is to quantify the amplitude of the predicted plateau in [alpha/Fe] ratios associated with the most metal-poor stars of a galaxy. We assume that the initial mass function in galaxies is steeper if the star formation…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-17 S. Recchi , F. Calura , B. K. Gibson , P. Kroupa