English
Related papers

Related papers: Is it possible to reconcile extragalactic IMF vari…

200 papers

We perform a direct comparison of two state-of-the art single stellar population (SSP) models that have been used to demonstrate the non-universality of the low-mass end of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) slope. The two public versions of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-18 Chiara Spiniello , Scott C. Trager , Léon V. E. Koopmans

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-09-12 Patrick Steyrleithner , Gerhard Hensler

We propose that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal in the sense that its functional form arises as a consequence of the statistics of random supersonic flows. A model is developed for the origin of the stellar IMF, that…

Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-24 Paolo Padoan , Ake Nordlund , Bernard J. T. Jones

The measured star-formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies comprise an important constraint on galaxy evolution and also on their cosmological boundary conditions. Any available tracer of the SFR depends on the shape of the mass-distribution of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-12-22 Pavel Kroupa , Tereza Jerabkova

Motivated by the observed bottom-light initial mass function (IMF) in faint dwarfs, we study how a metallicity-dependent IMF affects the feedback budget and observables of an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy. We model the evolution of a low-mass…

The distribution of stellar masses that form in one star-formation event in a given volume of space is called the initial mass function (IMF). The IMF has been estimated from low-mass brown dwarfs to very massive stars. Combining IMF…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Pavel Kroupa

Observations have indicated that the prestellar core mass function (CMF) is similar to the stellar initial mass function (IMF), except for an offset towards larger masses. This has led to the idea that there is a one-to-one relation between…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2021-03-31 V. -M. Pelkonen , P. Padoan , T. Haugbølle , Å. Nordlund

We here present the first spatially-resolved study of the IMF in external galaxies derived using a dynamical tracer of the mass-to-light ratio. We use the kinematics of relaxed molecular gas discs in seven early-type galaxies (ETGs)…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-09-21 Timothy A. Davis , Richard M. McDermid

The Initial Mass Function (IMF) of early-type galaxies (ETGs) has been found to feature systematic variations by both dynamical and spectroscopic studies. In particular, spectral line strengths, based on gravity-sensitive features, suggest…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-23 F. La Barbera , I. Ferreras , A. Vazdekis

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has uncovered an abundance of $z>10$ galaxies bright in the ultraviolet (UV) that has challenged traditional theoretical models at high redshifts. Recently, various new models have emerged to address…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-02-19 Anne Hutter , Elie R Cueto , Pratika Dayal , Stefan Gottlöber , Maxime Trebitsch , Gustavo Yepes

Recent observations of globular clusters (GCs) provide evidence that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) may not be universal, suggesting specifically that the IMF grows increasingly top-heavy with decreasing metallicity and increasing…

One of the key mysteries of star formation is the origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF). The IMF is observed to be nearly universal in the Milky Way and its satellites, and significant variations are only inferred in extreme…

The stellar initial mass function is of great significance for the study of star formation and galactic structure. Observations indicate that the IMF follows a power-law form. This work derived that when the expected number of stars formed…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-03-20 Yu-Fu Shen

Observations with JWST have revealed an unexpected high abundance of bright z>10 galaxy candidates. We explore whether a stellar initial mass function (IMF) that becomes increasingly top-heavy towards higher redshifts and lower gas-phase…

A robust stellar initial mass function (IMF) is crucial in any studies related to star formation. However, the direct measurement of the stellar IMF is confined to the local universe, limited by the resolving power of telescopes. Recently,…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-02-12 Sung Kei Li

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) determines the relative number of stars born at a given mass. Despite the tremendous effort to establish a universal IMF, the astronomical literature offers a wealth of diverse evidence for IMF…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Frank Eisenhauer

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) describes the mass distribution of stars at the time of their formation and is of fundamental importance for many areas of astrophysics. The IMF is reasonably well constrained in the disk of the Milky…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-20 Pieter van Dokkum , Charlie Conroy

Standard analytical chemical evolution modelling of galaxies has been assuming the stellar initial mass function (IMF) to be invariant and fully sampled allowing fractions of massive stars to contribute even in dwarf galaxies with very low…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-23 S. Recchi , P. Kroupa

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is believed to be non-universal among early-type galaxies (ETGs). Parameterizing the IMF with the so-called IMF mismatch parameter $\alpha_{\rm IMF}$, which is a measure of the stellar mass-to-light…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-10-14 Carlo Nipoti , Carlo Cannarozzo , Francesco Calura , Alessandro Sonnenfeld , Tommaso Treu

Observations of both galaxies in the distant Universe and local starbursts are showing increasing evidence for very hard ionizing spectra that stellar population synthesis models struggle to reproduce. Here we explore the effects of the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-01-23 E. R. Stanway , J. J. Eldridge