scholarly journals The emergence of the galactic stellar mass function from a non-universal IMF in clusters

2018 ◽  
Vol 614 ◽  
pp. A43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Dib ◽  
Shantanu Basu

We investigate the dependence of a single-generation galactic mass function (SGMF) on variations in the initial stellar mass functions (IMF) of stellar clusters. We show that cluster-to-cluster variations of the IMF lead to a multi-component SGMF where each component in a given mass range can be described by a distinct power-law function. We also show that a dispersion of ≈0.3 M⊙ in the characteristic mass of the IMF, as observed for young Galactic clusters, leads to a low-mass slope of the SGMF that matches the observed Galactic stellar mass function even when the IMFs in the low-mass end of individual clusters are much steeper.

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S266) ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
Guido De Marchi ◽  
Francesco Paresce ◽  
Simon Portegies Zwart

AbstractWe show that we can obtain a good fit to the present-day stellar-mass functions of a large sample of young and old Galactic clusters with a tapered Salpeter power-law distribution function with an exponential truncation of the form dN/dm ∝ mα [1 − exp(−m/mc)β]. The average value of the power-law index α is ~−2.2, very close to the Salpeter value of −2.3, while the characteristic mass, mc, is in the range 0.1–0.6M⊙ and does not seem to vary in any systematic way with the present cluster parameters such as metal abundance, total cluster mass or central concentration. However, the characteristic mass shows a remarkable correlation with the dynamical age of the cluster, namely mc/M⊙ ≃ 0.15 + 0.5 × t3/4dyn, where tdyn is the dynamical time, taken as the ratio of cluster age and dissolution time. The small scatter around this correlation is likely due to uncertainties on the estimated value of tdyn. We attribute the observed trend to the onset of mass segregation through two-body relaxation in a tidal environment, causing preferential loss of low-mass stars from the cluster and hence a drift of the characteristic mass towards higher values. If dynamical evolution is indeed at the origin of the observed trend, it seems plausible that globular clusters, now with mc ≃ 0.35M⊙, were born with a stellar mass function very similar to that measured today in the youngest Galactic clusters and with a value of mc around 0.15 M⊙. This is consistent with the absence of a turn-over in the mass function of the Galactic bulge down to the observational limit at ~0.2M⊙ and argues for the universality of the initial mass function of Population I and II stars.


2020 ◽  
Vol 638 ◽  
pp. A112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco F. J. van der Burg ◽  
Gregory Rudnick ◽  
Michael L. Balogh ◽  
Adam Muzzin ◽  
Chris Lidman ◽  
...  

We study the stellar mass functions (SMFs) of star-forming and quiescent galaxies in 11 galaxy clusters at 1.0 < z < 1.4 drawn from the Gemini Observations of Galaxies in Rich Early ENvironments (GOGREEN) survey. Based on more than 500 h of Gemini/GMOS spectroscopy and deep multi-band photometry taken with a range of observatories, we probe the SMFs down to a stellar mass limit of 109.7 M⊙ (109.5 M⊙ for star-forming galaxies). At this early epoch, the fraction of quiescent galaxies is already highly elevated in the clusters compared to the field at the same redshift. The quenched fraction excess (QFE) represents the fraction of galaxies that would be star-forming in the field but are quenched due to their environment. The QFE is strongly mass dependent, and increases from ∼30% at M⋆ = 109.7 M⊙ to ∼80% at M⋆ = 1011.0 M⊙. Nonetheless, the shapes of the SMFs of the two individual galaxy types, star-forming and quiescent galaxies, are identical between cluster and field to high statistical precision. Nevertheless, along with the different quiescent fractions, the total galaxy SMF is also environmentally dependent, with a relative deficit of low-mass galaxies in the clusters. These results are in stark contrast with findings in the local Universe, and therefore require a substantially different quenching mode to operate at early times. We discuss these results in light of several popular quenching models.


2003 ◽  
Vol 211 ◽  
pp. 175-178
Author(s):  
Anandmayee Tej ◽  
Kailash C. Sahu ◽  
T. Chandrasekhar ◽  
N. M. Ashok

We present a statistical method to derive the mass functions of open clusters using sky survey data such as the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and the Guide Star Catalogue (GSC). We have used this method to derive the mass functions in the stellar/substellar regime of three young, nearby open clusters, namely IC 348, σ Orionis and Pleiades. The mass function in the low mass range (M< 0.50M⊙) is appreciably flatter than the stellar Salpeter function for all three open clusters. The contribution of objects below 0.5 M⊙ to the total mass of the cluster is ~40% and the contribution of objects below 0.08 M⊙ to the total is ~4%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (2) ◽  
pp. 1568-1590
Author(s):  
Lukas J Furtak ◽  
Hakim Atek ◽  
Matthew D Lehnert ◽  
Jacopo Chevallard ◽  
Stéphane Charlot

ABSTRACT We present new measurements of the very low mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) at z ∼ 6−7 computed from a rest-frame ultraviolet selected sample of dropout galaxies. These galaxies lie behind the six Hubble Frontier Field clusters and are all gravitationally magnified. Using deep Spitzer/IRAC and Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we derive stellar masses by fitting galaxy spectral energy distributions and explore the impact of different model assumptions and parameter degeneracies on the resulting GSMF. Our sample probes stellar masses down to $M_{\star }\gt 10^{6}\, \text{M}_{\odot}$ and we find the z ∼ 6−7 GSMF to be best parametrized by a modified Schechter function that allows for a turnover at very low masses. Using a Monte Carlo Markov chain analysis of the GSMF, including accurate treatment of lensing uncertainties, we obtain a relatively steep low-mass end slope $\alpha \simeq -1.96_{-0.08}^{+0.09}$ and a turnover at $\log (M_T/\text{M}_{\odot})\simeq 7.10_{-0.56}^{+0.17}$ with a curvature of $\beta \simeq 1.00_{-0.73}^{+0.87}$ for our minimum assumption model with constant star formation history (SFH) and low dust attenuation, AV ≤ 0.2. We find that the z ∼ 6−7 GSMF, in particular its very low mass end, is significantly affected by the assumed functional form of the star formation history and the degeneracy between stellar mass and dust attenuation. For example, the low-mass end slope ranges from $\alpha \simeq -1.82_{-0.07}^{+0.08}$ for an exponentially rising SFH to $\alpha \simeq -2.34_{-0.10}^{+0.11}$ when allowing AV of up to 3.25. Future observations at longer wavelengths and higher angular resolution with the James Webb Space Telescope are required to break these degeneracies and to robustly constrain the stellar mass of galaxies on the extreme low-mass end of the GSMF.


2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (4) ◽  
pp. 5115-5133
Author(s):  
A A Khostovan ◽  
S Malhotra ◽  
J E Rhoads ◽  
S Harish ◽  
C Jiang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The H α equivalent width (EW) is an observational proxy for specific star formation rate (sSFR) and a tracer of episodic, bursty star-formation activity. Previous assessments show that the H α EW strongly anticorrelates with stellar mass as M−0.25 similar to the sSFR – stellar mass relation. However, such a correlation could be driven or even formed by selection effects. In this study, we investigate how H α EW distributions correlate with physical properties of galaxies and how selection biases could alter such correlations using a z = 0.47 narrow-band-selected sample of 1572 H α emitters from the Ly α Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization (LAGER) survey as our observational case study. The sample covers a 3 deg2 area of COSMOS with a survey comoving volume of 1.1 × 105 Mpc3. We assume an intrinsic EW distribution to form mock samples of H α emitters and propagate the selection criteria to match observations, giving us control on how selection biases can affect the underlying results. We find that H α EW intrinsically correlates with stellar mass as W0∝M−0.16 ± 0.03 and decreases by a factor of ∼3 from 107 M⊙ to 1010 M⊙, while not correcting for selection effects steepens the correlation as M−0.25 ± 0.04. We find low-mass H α emitters to be ∼320 times more likely to have rest-frame EW&gt;200 Å compared to high-mass H α emitters. Combining the intrinsic W0–stellar mass correlation with an observed stellar mass function correctly reproduces the observed H α luminosity function, while not correcting for selection effects underestimates the number of bright emitters. This suggests that the W0–stellar mass correlation when corrected for selection effects is physically significant and reproduces three statistical distributions of galaxy populations (line luminosity function, stellar mass function, EW distribution). At lower stellar masses, we find there are more high-EW outliers compared to high stellar masses, even after we take into account selection effects. Our results suggest that high sSFR outliers indicative of bursty star formation activity are intrinsically more prevalent in low-mass H α emitters and not a byproduct of selection effects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 624 ◽  
pp. A137 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Haemmerlé ◽  
P. Eggenberger ◽  
S. Ekström ◽  
C. Georgy ◽  
G. Meynet ◽  
...  

Grids of stellar models are useful tools to derive the properties of stellar clusters, in particular young clusters hosting massive stars, and to provide information on the star formation process in various mass ranges. Because of their short evolutionary timescale, massive stars end their life while their low-mass siblings are still on the pre-main sequence (pre-MS) phase. Thus the study of young clusters requires consistent consideration of all the phases of stellar evolution. But despite the large number of grids that are available in the literature, a grid accounting for the evolution from the pre-MS accretion phase to the post-MS phase in the whole stellar mass range is still lacking. We build a grid of stellar models at solar metallicity with masses from 0.8 M⊙ to 120 M⊙, including pre-MS phase with accretion. We use the GENEC code to run stellar models on this mass range. The accretion law is chosen to match the observations of pre-MS objects on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We describe the evolutionary tracks and isochrones of our models. The grid is connected to previous MS and post-MS grids computed with the same numerical method and physical assumptions, which provides the widest grid in mass and age to date.


2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (1) ◽  
pp. 631-652
Author(s):  
J A Vázquez-Mata ◽  
J Loveday ◽  
S D Riggs ◽  
I K Baldry ◽  
L J M Davies ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT How do galaxy properties (such as stellar mass, luminosity, star formation rate, and morphology) and their evolution depend on the mass of their host dark matter halo? Using the Galaxy and Mass Assembly group catalogue, we address this question by exploring the dependence on host halo mass of the luminosity function (LF) and stellar mass function (SMF) for grouped galaxies subdivided by colour, morphology, and central/satellite. We find that spheroidal galaxies in particular dominate the bright and massive ends of the LF and SMF, respectively. More massive haloes host more massive and more luminous central galaxies. The satellites LF and SMF, respectively, show a systematic brightening of characteristic magnitude, and increase in characteristic mass, with increasing halo mass. In contrast to some previous results, the faint-end and low-mass slopes show little systematic dependence on halo mass. Semi-analytic models and simulations show similar or enhanced dependence of central mass and luminosity on halo mass. Faint and low-mass simulated satellite galaxies are remarkably independent of halo mass, but the most massive satellites are more common in more massive groups. In the first investigation of low-redshift LF and SMF evolution in group environments, we find that the red/blue ratio of galaxies in groups has increased since redshift z ≈ 0.3 relative to the field population. This observation strongly suggests that quenching of star formation in galaxies as they are accreted into galaxy groups is a significant and ongoing process.


2002 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 687-690
Author(s):  
Marco Sirianni ◽  
Antonella Nota ◽  
Guido De Marchi ◽  
Claus Leitherer ◽  
Mark Clampin

We present a new study of the low end of the stellar IMF of NGC 330, the richest young star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Using deep broadband images taken with the HST/WFPC2 we have derived the cluster's luminosity function and constructed the initial mass function (IMF) in the mass range 1 − 7M⊙. We have investigated the IMF as a function of the radial distance from the cluster center. We find that, after correction for background contamination, the IMF is fairly homogeneous with a slope slightly steeper than Salpeter's in the central regions of the cluster (< 40″) but becomes increasingly steeper with distance, indicating a preponderance of massive stars in the core of the cluster. NGC 330 is one of the first clusters for which evidence of mass segregation is directly found.


Author(s):  
Aldo Rodríguez-Puebla ◽  
A. R. Calette ◽  
Vladimir Avila-Reese ◽  
Vicente Rodriguez-Gomez ◽  
Marc Huertas-Company

Abstract We report the bivariate $\rm HI$ - and $\rm H_{2}$ -stellar mass distributions of local galaxies in addition of an inventory of galaxy mass functions, MFs, for $\rm HI$ , $\rm H_{2}$ , cold gas, and baryonic mass, separately into early- and late-type galaxies. The MFs are determined using the $\rm HI$ and $\rm H_{2}$ conditional distributions and the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF). For the conditional distributions we use the results from the compilation presented in Calette et al. [(2018) RMxAA, 54, 443.]. For determining the GSMF from $M_{*}\sim3\times10^{7}$ to $3\times10^{12}\ \text{M}_{\odot}$ , we combine two spectroscopic samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at the redshift range $0.0033<z<0.2$ . We find that the low-mass end slope of the GSMF, after correcting from surface brightness incompleteness, is $\alpha\approx-1.4$ , consistent with previous determinations. The obtained $\rm HI\,$ MFs agree with radio blind surveys. Similarly, the $\rm H_{2}\,$ MFs are consistent with CO follow-up optically-selected samples. We estimate the impact of systematics due to mass-to-light ratios and find that our MFs are robust against systematic errors. We deconvolve our MFs from random errors to obtain the intrinsic MFs. Using the MFs, we calculate cosmic density parameters of all the baryonic components. Baryons locked inside galaxies represent 5.4% of the universal baryon content, while $\sim\! 96\%$ of the $\rm HI$ and $\rm H_{2}$ mass inside galaxies reside in late-type morphologies. Our results imply cosmic depletion times of $\rm H_{2}$ and total neutral H in late-type galaxies of $\sim\!1.3$ and 7.2 Gyr, respectively, which shows that late type galaxies are on average inefficient in converting $\rm H_{2}$ into stars and in transforming $\rm HI$ gas into $\rm H_{2}$ . Our results provide a fully self-consistent empirical description of galaxy demographics in terms of the bivariate gas–stellar mass distribution and their projections, the MFs. This description is ideal to compare and/or to constrain galaxy formation models.


2015 ◽  
Vol 815 (2) ◽  
pp. 95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoli Zhang ◽  
Chengyuan Li ◽  
Richard de Grijs ◽  
Kenji Bekki ◽  
Licai Deng ◽  
...  

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