Related papers: Clumpy shocks and the clump mass function
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…
Early type massive stars drive thin, dense shells whose edges often show evidence of star-formation. The possibility of fragmentation of these shells, leading to the formation of putative star-forming clumps is examined with the aid of…
We propose to interpret the stellar IMF as a property of the turbulence in the star--forming gas. Gravitationally unstable density enhancements in the turbulent flow collapse and form stars. Their mass distribution can be derived…
An essential component of galaxy formation theory is the stellar initial mass function (IMF), that describes the parent distribution of stellar mass in star forming regions. We present observational evidence in a sample of early-type…
We investigate the origin of a bottom-heavy stellar initial mass function (IMF) recently observed in elliptical galaxies by using chemical evolution models with a non-universal IMF. We adopt the Kroupa IMF with the three slopes (alpha_1,…
Globular clusters display an anticorrelation between the fraction of the first generation of stars ($N({\rm G1})/N({\rm tot})$) and the slope of the present-day mass function of the clusters ($\alpha_{pd}$), which is particularly…
Understanding star formation is problematic as it originates in the large scale dynamics of a galaxy but occurs on the small scale of an individual star forming event. This paper presents the first numerical simulations to resolve the star…
Similarity in shape between the initial mass function (IMF) and the core mass functions (CMFs) in star-forming regions prompts the idea that the IMF originates from the CMF through a self-similar core-to-star mass mapping process. To…
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…
Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass from the surrounding cloud material. This process is investigated, using numerical models of self-gravitating molecular cloud…
A single-slope "Salpeter" IMF overpredicts the stellar M/L ratio of local elliptical galaxies by about a factor of 2, which requires the IMF to be flatter below about one solar mass. On the other hand a Salpeter IMF for stars more massive…
We present a luminosity function (LF) for lower main sequence stars in the Galactic bulge near (l,b)=(0,-6) to J=24, corresponding to M_J~9.3. This LF is derived from HST + NICMOS observations with the F110W and F160W filters. The main…
In this paper, we investigate the extent to which observations of molecular clouds can correctly identify and measure star-forming clumps. We produced a synthetic column density map and a synthetic spectral-line data cube from the simulated…
Star formation rates (SFR) larger than 1000 Msun/ yr are observed in extreme star bursts. This leads to the formation of star clusters with masses > 10^6 Msun in which crowding of the pre-stellar cores may lead to a change of the stellar…
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way plays host to a massive, young cluster that may have formed in one of the most inhospitable environments in the Galaxy. We present new measurements of the global properties of this…
The mass function of freshly formed star clusters is empirically often described as a power law. However the cluster mass function of populations of young clusters over the scale of a galaxy has been found to be described by a…
Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass from the surrounding cloud material. Molecular cloud regions without turbulent driving sources, or where turbulence is driven…
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…
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…
Observations and theories of the stellar initial mass function are reviewed. The universality and large total mass range of the power law portion of the IMF suggest a connection between stellar mass and cloud structure. The fractal patterns…