Related papers: The Physical Origin of the Stellar Initial Mass Fu…
(abridged version) Identifying the processes that determine the initial mass function of stars (IMF) is a fundamental problem in star formation theory. One of the major uncertainties is the exact chemical state of the star forming gas and…
Our understanding of stellar systems depends on the adopted interpretation of the IMF, phi(m). Unfortunately, there is not a common interpretation of the IMF, which leads to different methodologies and diverging analysis of observational…
Classical theories for the stellar initial mass function (IMF) predict a peak mass which scales with the properties of the molecular cloud. In this work, we explore a new theory proposed by Lee & Hennebelle (2018). The idea is that the…
We examine whether existing data in clusters, both old and young, and in the field of the Galactic disk and halo is consistent with a universal slope for the initial mass function (IMF). The most reasonable statement that can be made at the…
The presence (and nature) of variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) at substantially sub-solar masses and metallicities ($m$$<$0.5M$_{\odot}$, [M/H]$\lesssim$$-$1) remains poorly constrained. Predictions from simulations vary…
Context: Stars form in the cold dense cores of interstellar molecular clouds and the detailed knowledge of the spectrum of masses of such cores is clearly a key for the understanding of the origin of the IMF. To date, observations have…
Recent observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have found evidence for an invariant relation between stellar mass, metallicity, and star formation rate up to $z\sim 8$ and its breakdown at higher redshifts. Understanding the…
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…
The observed masses of the most massive stars do not surpass about 150Msun. This may either be a fundamental upper mass limit which is defined by the physics of massive stars and/or their formation, or it may simply reflect the increasing…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is the key to understanding the matter cycle in the Universe. Edwin Salpeter's paper of 1955 founded this research field. Evidence today, however, challenges the initial mass function as an invariant…
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…
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…
The conditions that affect the formation of stars in radiatively and mechanically active environments are quite different than the conditions that apply to our local interstellar neighborhood. In such galactic environments, a variety of…
There is good evidence that the centers of massive early-type galaxies have a bottom-heavy stellar initial mass function (IMF) compared to the IMF of the Milky Way. Here we study the radial variation of the IMF within such galaxies, using a…
Recent studies suggest that filamentary structures are representative of the initial conditions of star formation in molecular clouds and support a filament paradigm for star formation, potentially accounting for the origin of the stellar…
Residual-gas expulsion after cluster formation has recently been shown to leave an imprint in the low-mass present-day stellar mass function (PDMF) which allowed the estimation of birth conditions of some Galactic globular clusters (GCs)…
It is believed that the majority of stars form in clusters. Therefore it is likely that the gas physical conditions that prevail in forming clusters, largely determine the properties of stars that form and in particular the initial mass…
Observational and theoretical arguments increasingly suggest that the initial mass function (IMF) of stars may depend systematically on environment, yet most galaxy formation models to date assume a universal IMF. Here we investigate…
Recent results on the non-universality of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) have shown strong evidence of IMF variations with galaxy velocity dispersion, with a corresponding impact on other stellar population parameters, line indices and…
Stars do not form continuously distributed over star forming galaxies. They form in star clusters of different masses. This nature of clustered star formation is taken into account in the theory of the integrated galactic stellar initial…