Understanding the Stellar Initial Mass Function
| dc.creator | Larson, Richard B. | |
| dc.date | 2006-02-21 | |
| dc.date | 2006-03-21 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T07:47:24Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T07:47:24Z | |
| dc.description | 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. | |
| dc.description | 5 pages, text only. Invited talk presented at the 11th Latin American Regional IAU Meeting, Pucon, Chile, December 2005; to be published by Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica. Second version has some revisions and updates | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602469 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602469 | |
| dc.identifier | Rev.Mex.Astron.Astrof.Ser.Conf. 26 (2006) 55 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/124153 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | Understanding the Stellar Initial Mass Function | |
| dc.type | text |