星系与质量集合(GAMA):恒星初始质量函数对恒星形成率的依赖性
宇宙学与河外天体物理
2015-05-27 v1
摘要
恒星初始质量函数(IMF)描述了由一次恒星形成暴产生的恒星质量分布。五十多年来,涉及IMF的大多数研究领域隐含的假设是,无论时间和环境如何,IMF都是普适的。我们测量了来自星系与质量集合(GAMA)巡天的中低红移星系样本的大质量端IMF斜率。该样本在光度和星系质量上的大范围允许探索IMF的潜在依赖性。我们发现IMF与恒星形成率之间存在强烈的依赖关系,表明高恒星形成率星系比低恒星形成率星系按比例形成更多的大质量恒星(它们的IMF具有更平坦的幂律斜率)。这对广泛的各种星系演化研究产生了重大影响,所有这些研究都依赖于对IMF斜率的假设。我们的结果得到了众多近期探索的支持,并为这些表明IMF存在变化或演化的结果提供了合理解释。
引用
@article{arxiv.1104.2379,
title = {Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The star formation rate dependence of the stellar initial mass function},
author = {M. L. P. Gunawardhana and A. M. Hopkins and R. G. Sharp and S. Brough and E. Taylor and J. Bland-Hawthorn and C. Maraston and R. J. Tuffs and C. C. Popescu and D. Wijesinghe and D. H. Jones and S. Croom and E. Sadler and S. Wilkins and S. P. Driver and J. Liske and P. Norberg and I. K. Baldry and S. P. Bamford and J. Loveday and J. A. Peacock and A. S. G. Robotham and D. B. Zucker and Q. A. Parker and C. J. Conselice and E. Cameron and C. S. Frenk and D. T. Hill and L. S. Kelvin and K. Kuijken and B. F. Madore and B. Nichol and H. R. Parkinson and K. A. Pimbblet and M. Prescott and W. J. Sutherland and D. Thomas and E. van Kampen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1104.2379},
year = {2015}
}
备注
18 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Image resolution has been reduced. For the full resolution version, see http://www.gama-survey.org/pubs/papers/imf_sfr.pdf