Constraints on the stellar initial mass function from Spitzer

Details Constraints on the stellar initial mass function from Spitzer Constraints on the stellar initial mass function from Spitzer

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007sptz.prop40008m&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #40008

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental quantity in astrophysics and a valuable probe of the process of star formation. While there are many theories committed to deducing the origin of the IMF, there is also a dearth of good IMF constraints in star forming regions and a limited range of physical environments for which IMFs have been derived. We propose to use the Spitzer archive to rectify this problem by deriving IMF constraints in star forming regions over the local 1 kpc. We will construct and analyze 3 micron luminosity functions for embedded clusters that are located in five different star forming regions and that contain a range of most massive member stars. We will use our existing luminosity function modeling code to constrain the basic IMF parameters, e.g., the peak or characteristic mass formed in a star forming region and correlate these quantities to physical environmental parameters such as the presence of O type stars and the stellar surface density in each cluster. The very large mosaics provided by the Spitzer archive will also allow us to search for spatial variations of the IMF within a star cluster, variations that we have documented using both luminosity function modeling and spectroscopic followup.

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