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Related papers: The universal variability of the stellar initial m…

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The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is thought to be bottom-heavy in the cores of the most massive galaxies, with an excess of low mass stars compared to the Milky Way. However, studies of the kinematics of quiescent galaxies at 2<z<5…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-09-10 Pieter van Dokkum , Charlie Conroy

Using deep HST/ACS observations, we demonstrate that the sub-solar stellar initial mass function (IMF) of 6 ultra-faint dwarf Milky Way Satellites (UFDs) is more bottom light than the IMF of the Milky Way disk. Our data have a lower mass…

We present an investigation about the shape of the initial mass function (IMF) of early-type galaxies (ETGs), based on a joint lensing and dynamical analysis, and on stellar population synthesis models, for a sample of 55 lens ETGs…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-22 Silvia Posacki , Michele Cappellari , Tommaso Treu , Silvia Pellegrini , Luca Ciotti

We perform a spectroscopic study to constrain the stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) by using a large sample of 24,781 early-type galaxies from the SDSS-based SPIDER survey. Clear evidence is found of a trend between IMF and central…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 F. La Barbera , I. Ferreras , A. Vazdekis , I. G. de la Rosa , R. R. de Carvalho , M. Trevisan , J. Falcón-Barroso , E. Ricciardelli

Gaseous and stellar metallicities in galaxies are nowadays routinely used to constrain the evolutionary processes in galaxies. This requires the knowledge of the average yield per stellar generation, $y_{\text{Z}}$, i.e. the quantity of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-12-16 Fiorenzo Vincenzo , Francesca Matteucci , Francesco Belfiore , Roberto Maiolino

Many results in modern astrophysics rest on the notion that the Initial Mass Function (IMF) is universal. Our observations of HI selected galaxies in the light of H-alpha and the far-ultraviolet (FUV) challenge this notion. The flux ratio…

The stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) seems to be close to universal in the local star-forming regions. However, this quantity of a newborn stellar population responds differently at gas metallicities $Z \sim$ $Z_\odot$ than $Z$ = 0. A…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-03-31 Rafeel Riaz , Dominik R. G. Schleicher , Siegfried Vanaverbeke , Ralf S. Klessen

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

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…

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

(shortened) In this contribution an average or Galactic-field IMF is defined, stressing that there is evidence for a change in the power-law index at only two masses: near 0.5 Msun and 0.08 Msun. Using this supposed universal IMF, the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2011-09-29 Pavel Kroupa

The origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental issue in the theory of star formation. It is generally fit with a composite power law. Some clues on the progenitors can be found in dense starless cores that have a…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-09-21 Tingtao Zhou , Chelsea X. Huang , D. N. C. Lin , Matthias Gritschneder , Herbert Lau

The high-mass slope of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), first measured by E. Salpeter in 1955, appears universal across star-forming environments. Its origin remains a central unsolved problem in astrophysics. Using $getsf$, we…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-05-22 Guo-Yin Zhang , Alexander Men'shchikov , Jin-Zeng Li

The stellar initial mass function (sIMF) describes the distribution of stellar masses formed in a single star formation event in a molecular cloud clump. It is fundamental to astrophysics and cosmology, shaping our understanding of…

We investigate the impact of an environment-dependent galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function (gwIMF) on the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFR). The integrated galaxy-wide IMF (IGIMF) theory, which incorporates variations in stellar…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-07-18 Akram Hasani Zonoozi , Hosein Haghi , Pavel Kroupa , Sara Yousefizadeh , Zhiqiang Yan , Tereza Jerabkova , Eda Gjergo

Recently, there has been great progress toward observationally determining the mean star formation history of the universe. When accurately known, the cosmic star formation rate could provide much information about Galactic evolution, if…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-30 Brian D. Fields

The integrated galaxial initial mass function (IGIMF) is the relevant distribution function containing the information on the distribution of stellar remnants, the number of supernovae and the chemical enrichment history of a galaxy. Since…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 C. Weidner , P. Kroupa

We investigate the effect of a metallicity-dependent stellar initial mass function (IMF), as deduced observationally by Martin-Navarro et al. (2015c), on the inferred stellar masses and star formation rates (SFRs) of a representative sample…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-08-31 Bart Clauwens , Joop Schaye , Marijn Franx

We perform Jeans anisotropic modeling (JAM) on elliptical and spiral galaxies from the MaNGA DR13 sample. By comparing the stellar mass-to-light ratios estimated from stellar population synthesis (SPS) and from JAM, we find a similar…

In the present work we examined the hypothesis that, a core mass function (CMF), such as the one deduced for cores in the Orion molecular cloud (OMC), could possibly be the primogenitor of the stellar initial mass function (IMF). Using the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-27 S. Anathpindika