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Related papers: The Initial Mass Function and its Variation

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The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is predicted to depend upon the temperature of gas in star-forming molecular clouds. The introduction of an additional parameter, $T_{IMF}$ , into photometric template fitting, allows galaxies to be…

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

There is substantial evidence that the initial mass function (IMF) may be a function of the local star formation conditions. In particular, the IMF is predicted to flatten with increasing local luminosity density, with the formation of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-30 Jason A. Taylor

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) describes how many stars form at which mass. Despite recent observational progress, many fundamental properties of the IMF are still unknown. Specifically the question, whether starbursts are biased…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Frank Eisenhauer

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2010-11-10 Carsten Weidner , Jan Pflamm-Altenburg , Pavel Kroupa

Obtaining accurate measurements of the initial mass function (IMF) is often considered to be the key to understanding star formation, and a universal IMF is often assumed to imply a universal star formation process. Here, we illustrate that…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-14 M. B. N. Kouwenhoven , S. P. Goodwin

It is usually assumed that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) takes a universal form and that there exists a direct mapping between this and the distribution of natal core masses (the core mass function, CMF). The IMF and CMF have been…

One of the most robust observations of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is its near-universality in the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies. But recent observations of early-type galaxies can be interpreted to imply a bottom-heavy…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-03-26 David Guszejnov , Philip F. Hopkins , Andrew S. Graus

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) describes the mass distribution of stars at the time of their formation and is of fundamental importance for many areas of astrophysics. The IMF is reasonably well constrained in the disk of the Milky…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-20 Pieter van Dokkum , Charlie Conroy

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-19 Fabio Fontanot

A brief review is given of the basic observed features of the stellar IMF, and also of some of the theoretical ideas and simulations that may help to explain these features. The characteristic stellar mass of order one solar mass may derive…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Richard B. Larson

We undertake a systematic analysis of the early (< 0.5 Myr) evolution of clustering and the stellar initial mass function in turbulent fragmentation simulations. These large scale simulations for the first time offer the opportunity for a…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-18 Th. Maschberger , C. J. Clarke , I. A. Bonnell , P. Kroupa

The universality of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is tested using Bayesian statistics with a sample of eight young Galactic stellar clusters (IC 348, ONC, NGC 2024, NGC 6611, NGC 2264, $\rho$ Ophiuchi, Chameleon I, and Taurus). We…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-19 Sami Dib

Recent studies of dense clumps/cores in a number of regions of low-mass star formation have shown that the mass distribution of these clumps closely resembles the initial mass function (IMF) of field stars. One possible interpretation of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-06-23 Paul C. Clark , Ralf S. Klessen , Ian A. Bonnell

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.…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Bruce Elmegreen

The heavyweight stellar initial mass function (IMF) observed in the cores of massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) has been linked to formation of their cores in an initial swiftly-quenched rapid starburst. However, the outskirts of ETGs are…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-04-19 Padraig D. Alton , Russell J. Smith , John R. Lucey

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 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…

The stellar initial mass function is of great significance for the study of star formation and galactic structure. Observations indicate that the IMF follows a power-law form. This work derived that when the expected number of stars formed…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-03-20 Yu-Fu Shen

Young Moving Groups (YMGs) are close (<100pc), coherent collections of young (<100Myr) stars that appear to have formed in the same star-forming molecular cloud. As such we would expect their individual initial mass functions (IMFs) to be…

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