Related papers: Initial Mass Function Variations Cannot Explain th…
We review current theories for the origin of the Stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) with particular focus on the extent to which the IMF can be considered universal across various environments. To place the issue in an observational…
Spectroscopic analyses of gravity-sensitive line strengths give growing evidence towards an excess of low-mass stars in massive early-type galaxies (ETGs). Such a scenario requires a bottom-heavy initial mass function (IMF). However, strong…
The stellar mass distribution in star-forming regions, stellar clusters and associations, the Initial Mass Function (IMF), appears to be invariant across different star-forming environments, and is consistent with the IMF observed in the…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a key property of stellar populations. There is growing evidence that the classical star-formation mechanism by the direct cloud fragmentation process has difficulties reproducing the observed…
To fully understand the star formation process, we are compelled to study it in a variety of environments. Of particular interest are how star formation and the resulting initial mass function (IMF) vary as a function of metallicity. We…
Properties of the first generation of stars (Pop III), such as their initial mass function (IMF), are poorly constrained by observations and have yet to converge between simulations. The cosmological 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen is…
This paper revisits the classical Kennicutt method for inferring the stellar initial mass function (IMF) from the integrated light properties of galaxies. The large size, uniform high quality data set from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR4…
Using our Binary Population And Spectral Synthesis (BPASS) code we explore the effects on star-formation rate indicators of stochastically sampling the stellar initial mass function, adding a cluster mass dependent stellar upper-mass limit…
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…
Banerji et al. (2009) suggested that top-heavy stellar Initial Mass Functions (IMFs) in galaxies may arise when the interstellar physical conditions inhibit low-mass star formation, and they determined the physical conditions under which…
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…
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…
The relationship between stellar populations and the ionizing flux with which they irradiate their surroundings has profound implications for the evolution of the intergalactic medium. We quantify the ionizing flux arising from synthetic…
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…
When star clusters are formed at low star-formation rates (SFRs), their stellar initial mass function (IMF) can hardly be filled continuously with stars at each mass. This lack holds for massive stars and is observationally verified by the…
It has frequently been suggested that the stellar IMF in galaxies was top-heavy at early times. This would be plausible physically if the IMF depends on a mass scale such as the Jeans mass that was higher at earlier times because of the…
Research on the high-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF) has been limited due to a scarcity of samples. Recently, Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), as the most efficient spectroscopic telescope, has…
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…
Understanding the processes that determine the stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) is a critical unsolved problem, with profound implications for many areas of astrophysics. In molecular clouds, stars are formed in cores, gas condensations…
The initial mass function determines the fraction of stars of different intial mass born per stellar generation. In this paper, we test the effects of the integrated galactic initial mass function (IGIMF) on the chemical evolution of the…