Related papers: Understanding the IMF
The Stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) characterizes the mass distribution of newly formed stars in various cosmic environments, serving as a fundamental assumption in astrophysical research. Recent findings challenge the prevalent notion…
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…
Star formation is intimately linked to the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud…
The measured star-formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies comprise an important constraint on galaxy evolution and also on their cosmological boundary conditions. Any available tracer of the SFR depends on the shape of the mass-distribution of…
The observed rapid onset of star formation in molecular clouds requires rapid formation of dense fragments which can collapse individually before being overtaken by global gravitationally-driven flows. Many previous investigations have…
Any predictive theory of star formation must explain observed variations (or lack thereof) in the initial mass function. Recent work suggests that we might expect quantitative variations in the IMF as a function of metallicity (Larson 2005)…
Within collapsing protogalaxies, thermal instability leads to the formation of a population of cool fragments which are confined by the pressure of a residual hot background medium. The critical mass required for the cold clouds to become…
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 role of HD cooling in the formation of primordial objects is examined by means of a great number of 1-D models of the collapse of halos, exploring a wide range of masses and virialization redshifts. We find that HD has very little…
The initial mass function (IMF) is an essential tool with which to study star formation processes. We have initiated the photometric survey of young open clusters in the Galaxy, from which the stellar IMFs are obtained in a homogeneous way.…
A stochastic model of fragmentation of molecular clouds has been developed for studying the resulting Initial Mass Function (IMF) where the number of fragments, inter-occurrence time of fragmentation, masses and velocities of the fragments…
The first massive stars may influence the formation of second-generation stars, in part by their metal enrichment of the surrounding gas. We investigate the "critical metallicity", defined as the the value, Z_crit, at which primordial gas…
In this work, we derive the stellar initial mass function (IMF) from the superposition of mass distributions of dense cores, generated through gravoturbulent fragmentation of unstable clumps in molecular clouds (MCs) and growing through…
Star formation depends on the available gaseous "fuel" as well as galactic environment, with higher specific star formation rates where gas is predominantly molecular and where stellar (and dark matter) densities are higher. The partition…
Understanding the fragmentation of the gas cloud and the formation of massive stars remains one of the most challenging questions of modern astrophysical research. Either the gas fragments in a Jeans-like fashion, after which the fragments…
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…
As a formation route for objects such as giant planets and low-mass stars in protostellar discs (as well as stars in AGN discs), theories of self-gravitating disc fragmentation need to be able to predict the initial masses of fragments. We…
We present a new analysis of the minimum mass for star formation, based on opacity-limited fragmentation. Our analysis differs from the standard one, which considers hierarchical fragmentation of a 3-D medium, and yields $M_{_{\rm MIN}}…
Observational constraints on the theory of the IMF are reviewed. These observations include the new result that star formation is very rapid, usually going from start to finish in only 1 or 2 dynamical times on a wide range of scales. This…
At the earliest evolutionary stages, massive star-forming regions are deeply embedded within their natal cores and not observable at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Interferometric high-spatial resolution mm dust continuum…