The universality of the stellar initial mass function | Zendy

Paolo Padoan | Zendy; Åke Nordlund | Zendy; Bernard J. T. Jones | Zendy

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The universality of the stellar initial mass function

Author(s) -

Paolo Padoan,

Åke Nordlund,

Bernard J. T. Jones

Publication year - 1997

Publication title -

monthly notices of the royal astronomical society

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058

H-Index - 383

eISSN - 1365-8711

pISSN - 0035-8711

DOI - 10.1093/mnras/288.1.145

Subject(s) - physics , initial mass function , astrophysics , universality (dynamical systems) , supersonic speed , star formation , stellar mass , molecular cloud , velocity dispersion , scaling , statistical physics , stars , galaxy , mechanics , quantum mechanics , geometry , mathematics

We propose that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal in thesense that its functional form arises as a consequence of the statistics ofrandom supersonic flows. A model is developed for the origin of the stellar IMF, that contains adependence on the average physical parameters (temperature, density, velocitydispersion) of the large scale site of star formation. The model is based onrecent numerical experiments of highly supersonic random flows that have astrong observational counterpart. It is shown that a Miller-Scalo like IMF is naturally produced by the modelfor the typical physical conditions in molecular clouds. A more ``massive'' IMFin star bursts is also predicted.Comment: 22 pages; Latex; 6 figures included. MNRAS (in press

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