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Related papers: The initial mass function of stars

200 papers

Observations of mergers of multi-compact object systems offer insights to the formation processes of massive stars in globular clusters. Simulations of stellar clusters, may be used to understand and interpret observations. Simulations…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-12-27 Indulekha Kavila , Megha Viswambharan

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-04-08 Mark den Brok , Davor Krajnović , Eric Emsellem , Wilfried Mercier , Matthias Steinmetz , Peter M. Weilbacher

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) in the early universe is essential to understand the formation of ancient galaxies. To this end, we conduct a series of long-term radiation hydrodynamic simulations following star cluster formation,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-12-22 Sunmyon Chon , Takashi Hosokawa , Kazuyuki Omukai , Raffaella Schneider

The present paper extends our previous theory of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) by including the time-dependence, and by including the impact of magnetic field. The predicted mass spectra are similar to the time independent ones…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-15 Patrick Hennebelle , Gilles Chabrier

The dependence of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) on star-formation environment, particularly at low metallicities and high redshifts, remains poorly constrained. Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) are local fossils of high-redshift…

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-05-31 Pieter van Dokkum , Charlie Conroy , Alexa Villaume , Jean Brodie , Aaron Romanowsky

We review current theories for the origin of the Stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) with particular focus on the extent to which the IMF can be considered universal across various environments. To place the issue in an observational…

[abridged] We aim to constrain the stellar initial mass function (IMF) during the epoch of reionization. To this purpose, we build up a semi-empirical model for the reionization history of the Universe, based on various ingredients: the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-03-14 A. Lapi , G. Gandolfi , L. Boco , F. Gabrielli , M. Massardi , B. S. Haridasu , C. Baccigalupi , A. Bressan , L. Danese

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

A universal stellar initial mass function (IMF) should not be expected from theoretical models of star formation, but little conclusive observational evidence for a variable IMF has been uncovered. In this paper, a parameterization of the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-06-01 Albert Sneppen , Charles L. Steinhardt , Hagan Hensley , Adam S. Jermyn , Basel Mostafa , John R. Weaver

Recent results indicate the stellar initial mass function is not a strong function of star-forming environment or ``initial conditions'' (e.g. Meyer et al. 2000). Some studies suggest that a universal IMF may extend to sub-stellar masses…

Astrophysics · Physics 2015-11-11 M. R. Meyer , J. Greissl , M. Kenworthy , D. McCarthy

We present near-infrared $J$, $H$, and $K$ images of four embedded stellar clusters in the Galaxy. We find a significant fraction of pre-main-sequence stars present in at least one of the clusters. For the clusters dominated by…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 A. Leistra , A. Cotera , J. Liebert

In this work, we investigate the implications of the Integrated Galaxy-wide stellar Initial Mass Function (IGIMF) approach in the framework of the semi-analytic model GAEA (GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly), which features a detailed treatment…

Recent observational evidence for initial mass function (IMF) variations in massive quiescent galaxies at $z = 0$ challenges the long-established paradigm of a universal IMF. While a few theoretical models relate the IMF to birth cloud…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-08-30 Kirsten Blancato , Shy Genel , Greg Bryan

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

Low-mass stars (M<0.4Msun) are thought to comprise the bulk of the stellar mass of galaxies but they constitute only of order a percent of the bolometric luminosity of an old stellar population. Directly estimating the number of low-mass…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-30 Charlie Conroy , Pieter van Dokkum

Massive stars define the upper limits of the star formation process, dominate the energetics of their local environs, and significantly affect the chemical evolution of galaxies. Their role in starburst galaxies and the early Universe is…

Astrophysics · Physics 2015-11-11 Donald F. Figer

We review star formation in molecular clouds and describe why magnetic fields may be important and how they can influence filamentary structure and the column density probability distribution function (PDF). We also comment on the origin of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-10-18 Shantanu Basu , Sayantan Auddy

The presented study gives a comprehensive overview of the theory and the evidence for a systematically varying stellar initial mass function (IMF). Then we focus on the impact of this paradigm change, that is, from the universal invariant…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-12-16 Zhiqiang Yan

We present a combined analysis of the low-mass Initial Mass Function (IMF) for seven star forming regions. We first demonstrate that the ratios of stars to brown dwarfs are consistent with a single underlying IMF. Assuming the underlying…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 M. Andersen , M. R. Meyer , J. Greissl , A. Aversa