Related papers: On some Uncertainties in Evolutionary Synthesis Mo…
From time to time, and quite more frequently in recent years, claims appear favoring a variable Initial Mass Function (IMF), one way or another, either in time or space. In this chapter we add our two pennies of wisdom, illustrating how the…
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 fundamental properties of stellar clusters, such as the age or the total initial mass in stars, are often inferred from population synthesis models. The predicted properties are then used to constrain the physical mechanisms involved in…
Stellar clusters are regularly used to study the evolution of their host galaxy. Except for a few nearby galaxies, these studies rely on the interpretation of integrated cluster properties, especially integrated photometry observed using…
Modeling of large populations of binary stellar systems is an intergral part of a many areas of astrophysics, from radio pulsars and supernovae to X-ray binaries, gamma-ray bursts, and gravitational-wave mergers. Binary population synthesis…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) plays a crucial role in determining the number of surviving stars in galaxies, the chemical composition of the interstellar medium, and the distribution of light in galaxies. A key unsolved question…
Does the IMF vary? Is it significantly different in metal-rich environments than in metal-poor ones? Theoretical work predicts this to be the case. But in order to provide robust empirical evidence for this, the researcher must understand…
The development of evolutionary stellar population models is central to interpreting observations of galaxies in terms of astrophysical quantities. Stellar population models must therefore be both accurate and compatible with inversion…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental property of star formation, offering key insight into the physics driving the process as well as informing our understanding of stellar populations, their by-products, and their…
We investigate whether the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal, or whether it varies significantly among young stellar clusters in the Milky Way. We propose a method to uncover the range of variation of the parameters that…
Evolutionary population synthesis models for a wide range of metallicities, ages, star formation histories, and Horizontal Branch morphologies, including blue morphologies at high metallicity, are computed. The energetics of the post Main…
Growing evidence suggests that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) varies systematically across galaxies, deviating from the canonical Milky Way form. Such variations would modify the integrated nucleosynthetic yields, and hence the…
We report on empirical trends between the dynamically determined stellar initial mass function (IMF) and stellar population properties for a complete, volume-limited sample of 260 early-type galaxies from the Atlas3D project. We study…
The total extragalactic background radiation can be an important test of the global star formation history (SFH). Using direct observational estimates of the SFH, along with standard assumptions about the initial mass function (IMF), we…
The spectral absorption lines in early-type galaxies contain a wealth of information regarding the detailed abundance pattern, star formation history, and stellar initial mass function (IMF) of the underlying stellar population. Using our…
In this paper, we compare the currently available evolutionary tracks for Galactic massive stars. Our main goal is to highlight the uncertainties on the predicted evolutionary paths. We compute stellar evolution models with the codes MESA…
When star clusters are formed at low star-formation rates (SFRs), their stellar initial mass function (IMF) can hardly be filled continuously with stars at each mass. This lack holds for massive stars and is observationally verified by the…
Many astrophysical applications require efficient yet reliable forecasts of stellar evolution tracks. One example is population synthesis, which generates forward predictions of models for comparison with observations. The majority of…
We address the turbulent fragmentation scenario for the origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), using a large set of numerical simulations of randomly driven supersonic MHD turbulence. The turbulent fragmentation model…
One of the key observations regarding the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is its near-universality in the Milky Way (MW), which provides a powerful way to constrain different star formation models that predict the IMF. However, those…