Related papers: Environmental variation of the low-mass IMF
A wealth of observations recently challenged the notion of a universal stellar initial mass function (IMF) by showing evidences in favour of a variability of this statistical indicator as a function of galaxy properties. I present…
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…
We investigate how the removal of interstellar material by stellar feedback limits the efficiency of star formation in molecular clouds and how this determines the shape of the mass function of young star clusters. In particular, we derive…
We present the first simulations of the formation and feedback of massive stars which account for radiation forces as well as photoionization feedback (along with protostellar outflows). In two different accretion scenarios modeled, we…
The characteristic mass M_c in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is about constant for most star-forming regions. Numerical simulations consistently show a proportionality between M_c and the thermal Jeans mass M_J at the time of…
Chemical and photometric models of elliptical galaxies with infall of primordial gas, and subsequent ejection of processed material via galactic winds, are described. Ensuring that these models are consistent with the present-day…
A majority of JWST/NIRSpec/IFU studies at high redshifts to date have focused on UV-bright or massive objects, while our understanding of low-mass galaxies at early cosmic times remains limited. In this work, we present NIRSpec/IFS…
Recent results form the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) report space densities for bright and massive galaxies at z>7 that far exceed expectations of theoretical models of galaxy formation, prompting a revision of our understanding of the…
Ionizing UV radiation and supernova flows amidst clustered minihalos at high redshift regulated the rise of the first stellar populations in the universe. Previous studies have addressed the effects of very massive primordial stars on the…
The turnover in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) at low mass suggests the presence of two independent mass functions that combine in different ways above and below a characteristic mass given by the thermal Jeans mass in the cloud.…
[abridged] We report a series of simulations of the formation of a star cluster similar to the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), including both radiative transfer and protostellar outflows, and starting from both smooth and self-consistently…
Magnetic fields play an important role for the formation of stars in both local and high-redshift galaxies. Recent studies of dynamo amplification in the first dark matter haloes suggest that significant magnetic fields were likely present…
Much of our understanding of modern astrophysics rest on the notion that the Initial Mass Function (IMF) is universal. Our observations of a sample of HI-selected galaxies in the light of H-alpha and the far-ultraviolet (FUV) challenge this…
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…
Within a galaxy the stellar mass-to-light ratio $\Upsilon_*$ is not constant. Spatially resolved kinematics of nearby early-type galaxies suggest that allowing for a variable initial mass function (IMF) returns significantly larger…
Recent results suggest that the initial mass function (IMF) of globular clusters (GCs) is metallicity and density dependent. Here it is studied how this variation affects the initial masses and the numbers of core collapse supernovae…
Fifty years after Ed Salpeter's seminal paper, tremendous progress both on the observational and theoretical sides allow a fairly accurate determination of the Galactic IMF not only down to the hydrogen-burning limit but into the brown…
The first stars fundamentally transformed the early Universe through their production of energetic radiation and the first heavy chemical elements. The impact on cosmic evolution sensitively depends on their initial mass function (IMF),…
Using numerical hydrodynamics simulations we studied the gravitational collapse of pre-stellar cores of sub-solar mass embedded into a low-density external environment. Four models with different magnitude and direction of rotation of the…
The characteristic mass that sets the peak of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is closely linked to the thermodynamic behaviour of interstellar gas, which controls how gas fragments as it collapses under gravity. As the Universe has…