Related papers: Core mass function of a single giant molecular clo…
The distribution of core radii of rich clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) systematically increases in both upper limit and spread with increasing cluster age. Cluster-to-cluster variations in the stellar initial mass function…
In our SCUBA survey of Perseus, we find that the fraction of protostellar cores increases towards higher masses and the most massive cores are all protostellar. In this paper we consider the possible explanations of this apparent mass…
The mass distribution of dense cores is a potential key to understand the process of star formation. Applying dendrogram analysis to the CARMA-NRO Orion C$^{18}$O ($J$=1--0) data, we identify 2342 dense cores, about 22 \% of which have…
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…
We use numerical simulations of the fragmentation of a 1000 solar mass molecular cloud and the formation of a stellar cluster to study how the initial conditions for star formation affect the resulting initial mass function (IMF). In…
We study the initial mass function (IMF) of one of the most massive Galactic star-forming regions NGC 3603 to answer a fundamental question in current astrophysics: is the IMF universal, or does it vary? Using our very deep, high angular…
Several recent studies have shown that the star cluster initial mass function (CIMF) can be well approximated by a power law, with indications for a steepening or truncation at high masses. This contribution considers the evolution of such…
Observations of normal galactic star-forming regions suggest there is widespread near-uniformity in the initial stellar mass function (IMF) in spite of diverse physical conditions. Fluctuations may come largely from statistical effects and…
Star formation in the early Universe has left its imprint on the chemistry of observable stars in galaxies. We derive elemental abundances and the slope of the low-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF) for a sample of 25 very massive…
Using infrared to (sub)millimeter data from Spitzer, Herschel, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, and the IRAM 30-m telescope, we conducted an unbiased survey of the massive dense cores (MDCs) in the Cygnus X molecular cloud complex, aimed…
Mass measurements and absorption line studies indicate that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is bottom-heavy in the central regions of many early-type galaxies, with an excess of low mass stars compared to the IMF of the Milky Way.…
The morphology and kinematics of molecular clouds (MCs) are best explained as the consequence of super--sonic turbulence. Super--sonic turbulence fragments MCs into dense sheets, filaments and cores and large low density ``voids'', via the…
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…
The current knowledge on the stellar IMF is documented. It appears to become top-heavy when the star-formation rate density surpasses about 0.1Msun/(yr pc^3) on a pc scale and it may become increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing…
In the star formation process, the vital impact of environmental factors such as feedback from massive stars and stellar density on the form of the initial mass function (IMF) at low-mass end is yet to be understood. Hence a systematic,…
Much of our knowledge of galaxies comes from analysing the radiation emitted by their stars. It depends on the stellar initial mass function (IMF) describing the distribution of stellar masses when the population formed. Consequently…
Over the past years observations of young and populous star clusters have shown that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) can be conveniently described by a two-part power-law with an exponent alpha_2 = 2.3 for stars more massive than…
Aims: We examine the recoverability and completeness limits of the dense core mass functions (CMFs) derived for a molecular cloud using extinction data and a core identification scheme based on two-dimensional thresholding. Methods: We…
We explore the assumption, widely used in many astrophysical calculations, that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal across all galaxies. By considering both a canonical Salpeter-like IMF and a non-universal IMF, we are able…
It has been shown recently that the dynamical V-band mass-to-light ratios of compact stellar systems with masses from 10^6 to 10^8 Solar masses are not consistent with the predictions from simple stellar population (SSP) models. Top-heavy…