Understanding the Stellar Initial Mass Function

Details Understanding the Stellar Initial Mass Function Understanding the Stellar Initial Mass Function

2006-02-21

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602469v2

Rev.Mex.Astron.Astrof.Ser.Conf. 26 (2006) 55

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

5 pages, text only. Invited talk presented at the 11th Latin American Regional IAU Meeting, Pucon, Chile, December 2005; to be

Scientific paper

The essential features of the stellar Initial Mass Function are, rather generally, (1) a peak at a mass of a few tenths of a solar mass, and (2) a power-law tail toward higher masses that is similar to the original Salpeter function. Recent work suggests that the IMF peak reflects a preferred scale of fragmentation associated with the transition from a cooling phase of collapse at low densities to a nearly isothermal phase at higher densities, where the gas becomes thermally coupled to the dust. The Salpeter power law is plausibly produced, at least in part, by scale-free accretion processes that build up massive stars in dense environments. The young stars at the Galactic Center appear to have unusually high masses, possibly because of a high minimum mass resulting from the high opacity of the dense star-forming gas.

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