Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Nov 1982
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1982mnras.201..551f&link_type=abstract
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 201, Nov. 1982, p. 551-559.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
24
Molecular Clouds, Protostars, Star Formation, Stellar Mass, Open Clusters, Stellar Models, Supersonic Flow, Temperature Dependence, Turbulence
Scientific paper
A theoretical initial mass function (IMF) for Jeans mass protostellar fragments is derived from the velocity distribution function of interstellar turbulence, together with a modified Jeans equation relating the minimum mass that can undergo gravitational collapse to the velocity and temperature fields of the medium. The asymptotic results are found to be of the form required to account for the observed behavior of the stellar IMF at both the high and low mass limits. The agreement found between the derived fragment IMF and the IMFs of field stars and open clusters suggests that the IMF depends on the properties, especially the temperature, of the associated molecular cloud material, so that higher temperatures result in fewer low mass stars. The implications of these findings for star formation are discussed.
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