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Related papers: Understanding the Stellar Initial Mass Function

200 papers

We present a simple statistical analysis of recent numerical simulations exploring the correlation between the core mass function obtained from the fragmentation of a molecular cloud and the stellar mass function which forms from these…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-20 Gilles Chabrier , Patrick Hennebelle

Classical theories for the stellar initial mass function (IMF) predict a peak mass which scales with the properties of the molecular cloud. In this work, we explore a new theory proposed by Lee & Hennebelle (2018). The idea is that the…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-22 Tine Colman , Romain Teyssier

It is well established that the [alpha/Fe] ratios in elliptical galaxies increase with galaxy mass. This relation holds also for early-type dwarf galaxies, although it seems to steepen at low masses. The [alpha/Fe] vs. mass relation can be…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-20 Simone Recchi , Francesco Calura , Pavel Kroupa

We investigate how a single generation galactic mass function (SGMF) depends on the existence of variations in the initial stellar mass functions (IMF) of stellar clusters. We show that cluster-to-cluster variations of the IMF lead to a…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-06-13 Sami Dib , Shantanu Basu

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, suggest most galaxies…

The thermal properties of star-forming clouds have an important influence on how they fragment into stars, and it is suggested in this paper that the low-mass stellar IMF, which appears to be almost universal, is determined largely by the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2011-05-05 Richard B. Larson

Observations have not yielded convincing results concerning the form of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) or its variations in space and time, so it is proposed that theoretical models may provide useful guidance. Several classes of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-09-25 John Scalo

The manner in which the stellar initial mass function (IMF) scales with global galaxy properties is under debate. We use two hydrodynamical, cosmological simulations to predict possible trends for two self-consistent variable IMF…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-10-22 Christopher Barber , Joop Schaye , Robert A. Crain

We measure the stellar mass surface densities of early type galaxies by observing the micro-lensing of macro-lensed quasars caused by individual stars, including stellar remnants, brown dwarfs and red dwarfs too faint to produce photometric…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-19 Paul L. Schechter , David Pooley , Jeffrey A. Blackburne , Joachim Wambsganss

We investigated a volume-limited sample of LAMOST main-sequence stars with masses from 0.25 to 1 $M_{\odot}$ and distances of 150-350 pc to explore how the stellar initial mass function (IMF) varies with metallicity. We corrected the…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2025-11-07 Dan Qiu , Chao Liu , Jennifer A. Johnson , Jiadong Li , Bo Zhang

Stars do not form continuously distributed over star forming galaxies. They form in star clusters of different masses. This nature of clustered star formation is taken into account in the theory of the integrated galactic stellar initial…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2014-11-20 Jan Pflamm-Altenburg , Pavel Kroupa

We investigate the time evolution and spatial variation of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in star-forming disk galaxies by using chemodynamical simulations with an IMF model depending both on local densities and metallicities…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 Kenji Bekki , Gerhardt R. Meurer

Recent results on the non-universality of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) have shown strong evidence of IMF variations with galaxy velocity dispersion, with a corresponding impact on other stellar population parameters, line indices and…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 Anna Ferré-Mateu , Alexandre Vazdekis , Ignacio G. de la Rosa

The stellar mass function is one of the fundamental distributions of stellar astrophysics. Its form at masses similar to the Sun was found by Salpeter (1955) to be a power-law $m^{-\alpha}$ with a slope of $\alpha=1.35$. Since then the mass…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 N. R. Deacon , G. Nelemans , N. C. Hambly

The Galactic Center contains the most massive young clusters in the Galaxy and serves as the closest example of a massive starburst region. Our recent results suggest that the Galactic Center environment produces massive clusters with…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Donald F. Figer

In an improved model of protostar mass functions (PMFs), protostars gain mass from isothermal cores in turbulent clumps. Their mass accretion rate is similar to Shu accretion at low mass, and to reduced Bondi accretion at high mass.…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-18 Philip C. Myers

Observations with JWST have revealed an unexpected high abundance of bright z>10 galaxy candidates. We explore whether a stellar initial mass function (IMF) that becomes increasingly top-heavy towards higher redshifts and lower gas-phase…

This contribution describes the difficult task of inferring the IMF from local star-count data, by discussing the mass-luminosity relation, unresolved binary, triple and quadruple systems, abundance and age spreads and Galactic structure,…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Pavel Kroupa

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is critical to our understanding of star formation and the effects of young stars on their environment. On large scales, it enables us to use tracers such as UV or Halpha emission to estimate the star…

The initial mass function (IMF) describes the distribution of stellar masses in a population of newly born stars and is amongst the most fundamental concepts in astrophysics. It is not only the direct result of the star formation process…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2026-02-12 Amery Gration , Robert G. Izzard , Payel Das