Related papers: Competitive Accretion and the IMF
Galaxies must form and evolve via the acquisition of gas from the intergalactic environment, however the way this gas accretion takes place is still poorly understood. Star-forming galaxies are surrounded by multiphase halos that appear to…
Direct collapse black hole (DCBH) formation with mass $\gtrsim 10^{5}~M_{\odot}$ is a promising scenario for the origin of high-redshift supermassive black holes. It has usually been supposed that the DCBH can only form in the primordial…
Three component models of the IMF are made to consider possible origins for the observed relative variations in the numbers of brown dwarfs, solar-to-intermediate mass stars, and high mass stars. Three distinct physical processes are noted.…
We investigate the long-term dynamical evolution of two distinct stellar populations of low-mass stars in globular clusters in order to study whether the energy equipartition process can explain the high number of stars harbouring abundance…
Star-forming galaxies (SFGs) are forming stars at a regular pace, forming the so-called main sequence (MS). However, all studies of their gas content show that their gas reservoir ought to be depleted in 0.5-2 Gyr. Thus, SFGs are thought to…
We investigate the contraction of accreting protoclusters using an extension of n-body techniques that incorporates the accretional growth of stars from the gaseous reservoir in which they are embedded. Following on from Monte Carlo studies…
A supermassive black hole in the nucleus of an elliptical galaxy at the centre of a cool-core group or cluster of galaxies is immersed in hot gas. Bondi accretion should occur at a rate determined by the properties of the gas at the Bondi…
Recent observations of globular clusters (GCs) provide evidence that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) may not be universal, suggesting specifically that the IMF grows increasingly top-heavy with decreasing metallicity and increasing…
Observed variations in the IMF are reviewed with an emphasis on environmental density. The remote field IMF studied in the LMC by several authors is clearly steeper than most cluster IMFs, which have slopes close to the Salpeter value.…
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…
This chapter reviews the dynamical processes in young stellar clusters. The accretion of gas by individual stars affects the dynamics of the cluster, and the masses of the stars. Dynamical mass segregation cannot explain the degree of mass…
For most of their lives, galaxies are surrounded by large and massive coronae of hot gas, which constitute vast reservoirs for gas accretion. This Chapter describes a mechanism that allows star-forming disc galaxies to extract gas from…
Here I discuss recent work on brown dwarfs, massive stars and the IMF in general. The stellar IMF can be well described by an invariant two-part power law in present-day star-formation events within the Local Group of galaxies. It is nearly…
Using the Eris zoom-in cosmological simulation of assembly of a Milky Way analog, we study chemical enrichment of stars due to accretion of metal-enriched gas from the interstellar medium during the Galaxy's development. We consider…
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…
Recent observations have detected top-heavy IMFs in dense star forming regions like the Arches cluster. Whether such IMFs also exist in old dense stellar systems like globular clusters is difficult to constrain, because massive stars…
The entropy distribution of the intracluster medium and the shape of its confining potential well completely determine the X-ray properties of a relaxed cluster of galaxies, motivating us to explore the origin of intracluster entropy and to…
Galaxies that have fallen into massive haloes may no longer be able to accrete gas from their surroundings, a process referred to as 'starvation' or 'strangulation' of satellites. We study the environmental dependence of gas accretion onto…
The collapse of massive molecular clumps can produce high mass stars, but the evolution is not simply a scaled-up version of low mass star formation. Outflows and radiative effects strongly hinder the formation of massive stars via…
Several observational and theoretical indications suggest that the initial mass function (IMF) becomes increasingly top-heavy (i.e., overabundant in high-mass stars with mass $m > 1M_{\odot}$) with decreasing metallicity and increasing gas…