scholarly journals On the emergent system mass function: the contest between accretion and fragmentation

2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (2) ◽  
pp. 1697-1707
Author(s):  
Paul C Clark ◽  
Anthony P Whitworth
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Mass Distribution ◽  
Power Law ◽  
Accretion Rate ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
New Model ◽  
System Formation ◽  
Low Mass

ABSTRACT We propose a new model for the evolution of a star cluster’s system mass function (SMF). The model involves both turbulent fragmentation and competitive accretion. Turbulent fragmentation creates low-mass seed proto-systems (i.e. single and multiple protostars). Some of these low-mass seed proto-systems then grow by competitive accretion to produce the high-mass power-law tail of the SMF. Turbulent fragmentation is relatively inefficient, in the sense that the creation of low-mass seed proto-systems only consumes a fraction, ${\sim }23{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ (at most ${\sim }50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$), of the mass available for star formation. The remaining mass is consumed by competitive accretion. Provided the accretion rate on to a proto-system is approximately proportional to its mass (dm/dt ∝ m), the SMF develops a power-law tail at high masses with the Salpeter slope (∼−2.3). If the rate of supply of mass accelerates, the rate of proto-system formation also accelerates, as appears to be observed in many clusters. However, even if the rate of supply of mass decreases, or ceases and then resumes, the SMF evolves homologously, retaining the same overall shape, and the high-mass power-law tail simply extends to ever higher masses until the supply of gas runs out completely. The Chabrier SMF can be reproduced very accurately if the seed proto-systems have an approximately lognormal mass distribution with median mass ${\sim } 0.11 \, {\rm M}_{\odot }$ and logarithmic standard deviation $\sigma _{\log _{10}({M/M}_\odot)}\sim 0.47$).

scholarly journals Galactic consequences of clustered star formation

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S266) ◽  
pp. 417-420
Author(s):  
M. R. Haas ◽  
P. Anders
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Power Law ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Star Cluster ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Power Law Distribution ◽  
Chemical Enrichment ◽  
Low Mass

AbstractIf all stars form in clusters and both stars and clusters follow a power-law distribution which favours the creation of low-mass objects, the numerous low-mass clusters will be deficient in high-mass stars. Therefore, the stellar mass function integrated over the entire galaxy (the integrated galactic initial mass function; IGIMF) will be steeper at the high-mass end than the underlying stellar IMF. We show how the steepness of the IGIMF depends on the sampling method and on the assumptions made regarding the star cluster mass function. We also investigate the O-star content, integrated photometry and chemical enrichment of galaxies that result from several IGIMFs compared to more standard IMFs.

scholarly journals Correlations between H α equivalent width and galaxy properties at z = 0.47: Physical or selection-driven?

2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (4) ◽  
pp. 5115-5133
Author(s):  
A A Khostovan ◽  
S Malhotra ◽  
J E Rhoads ◽  
S Harish ◽  
C Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Equivalent Width ◽  
Luminosity Function ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Selection Effects ◽  
Star Formation Activity ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Stellar Masses

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>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.

scholarly journals Young and intermediate-age massive star clusters

2010 ◽  
Vol 368 (1913) ◽  
pp. 867-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren S. Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Star Clusters ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Starburst Galaxies ◽  
Open Clusters ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Power Law Distribution ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Massive Clusters

An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with the main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within a few million years and, depending on the efficiency of star formation, the clusters may disperse almost immediately or remain gravitationally bound. Current evidence suggests that a small percentage of star formation occurs in clusters that remain bound, although it is not yet clear whether this fraction is truly universal. Internal two-body relaxation and external shocks will lead to further, gradual dissolution on time scales of up to a few hundred million years for low-mass open clusters in the Milky Way, while the most massive clusters (>10 5  M ⊙ ) have lifetimes comparable to or exceeding the age of the Universe. The low-mass end of the initial cluster mass function is well approximated by a power-law distribution, , but there is mounting evidence that quiescent spiral discs form relatively few clusters with masses M >2×10 5  M ⊙ . In starburst galaxies and old globular cluster systems, this limit appears to be higher, at least several ×10 6  M ⊙ . The difference is likely related to the higher gas densities and pressures in starburst galaxies, which allow denser, more massive giant molecular clouds to form. Low-mass clusters may thus trace star formation quite universally, while the more long-lived, massive clusters appear to form preferentially in the context of violent star formation.

scholarly journals Transition of the initial mass function in the metal-poor environments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunmyon Chon ◽  
Kazuyuki Omukai ◽  
Raffaella Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Mass Distribution ◽  
Massive Stars ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass ◽  
Low Mass Stars ◽  
Filamentary Structure ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Cloud Core

Abstract We study star cluster formation in a low-metallicity environment using three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. Starting from a turbulent cloud core, we follow the formation and growth of protostellar systems with different metallicities ranging from 10−6 to 0.1 Z⊙. The cooling induced by dust grains promotes fragmentation at small scales and the formation of low-mass stars with M* ∼ 0.01–0.1 M⊙ While the number of low-mass stars increases with metallicity, when Z/Z⊙ ≳ 10−5. the stellar mass distribution is still top-heavy for Z/Z⊙ ≲ 10−2 compared to the Chabrier initial mass function (IMF). In these cases, star formation begins after the turbulent motion decays and a single massive cloud core monolithically collapses to form a central massive stellar system. The circumstellar disk preferentially feeds the mass to the central massive stars, making the mass distribution top-heavy. When Z/Z⊙ = 0.1, collisions of the turbulent flows promote the onset of the star formation and a highly filamentary structure develops owing to efficient fine-structure line cooling. In this case, the mass supply to the massive stars is limited by the local gas reservoir and the mass is shared among the stars, leading to a Chabrier-like IMF. We conclude that cooling at the scales of the turbulent motion promotes the development of the filamentary structure and works as an important factor leading to the present-day IMF.

scholarly journals Simulating star clusters across cosmic time – I. Initial mass function, star formation rates, and efficiencies

2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (2) ◽  
pp. 1880-1898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong-Chong He ◽  
Massimo Ricotti ◽  
Sam Geen
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Power Law ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Star Clusters ◽  
Cosmic Time ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Initial Mass ◽  
Solar Metallicity

ABSTRACT We present radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of star formation in self-gravitating, turbulent molecular clouds, modelling the formation of individual massive stars, including their UV radiation feedback. The set of simulations have cloud masses between mgas = 103 M⊙ and 3 × 105 M⊙ and gas densities typical of clouds in the local Universe ($\overline{n}_{\rm gas} \sim 1.8\times 10^2$ cm−3) and 10× and 100× denser, expected to exist in high-redshift galaxies. The main results are as follows. (i) The observed Salpeter power-law slope and normalization of the stellar initial mass function at the high-mass end can be reproduced if we assume that each star-forming gas clump (sink particle) fragments into stars producing on average a maximum stellar mass about $40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the mass of the sink particle, while the remaining $60{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ is distributed into smaller mass stars. Assuming that the sinks fragment according to a power-law mass function flatter than Salpeter, with log-slope 0.8, satisfy this empirical prescription. (ii) The star formation law that best describes our set of simulation is ${\rm d}\rho _*/{\rm d}t \propto \rho _{\rm gas}^{1.5}$ if $\overline{n}_{\rm gas}\lt n_{\rm cri}\approx 10^3$ cm−3, and ${\rm d}\rho _*/{\rm d}t \propto \rho _{\rm gas}^{2.5}$ otherwise. The duration of the star formation episode is roughly six cloud’s sound crossing times (with cs = 10 km s−1). (iii) The total star formation efficiency in the cloud is $f_*=2{{\ \rm per\ cent}} (m_{\rm gas}/10^4~\mathrm{M}_\odot)^{0.4}(1+\overline{n}_{\rm gas}/n_{\rm cri})^{0.91}$, for gas at solar metallicity, while for metallicity Z < 0.1 Z⊙, based on our limited sample, f* is reduced by a factor of ∼5. (iv) The most compact and massive clouds appear to form globular cluster progenitors, in the sense that star clusters remain gravitationally bound after the gas has been expelled.

Low‐Mass Star Formation and the Initial Mass Function in IC 348

1998 ◽  
Vol 508 (1) ◽  
pp. 347-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. L. Luhman ◽  
G. H. Rieke ◽  
C. J. Lada ◽  
E. A. Lada
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass ◽  
Mass Star ◽  
Low Mass

scholarly journals How robustly can we constrain the low-mass end of the z ∼ 6−7 stellar mass function? The limits of lensing models and stellar population assumptions in the Hubble Frontier Fields

2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (2) ◽  
pp. 1568-1590
Author(s):  
Lukas J Furtak ◽  
Hakim Atek ◽  
Matthew D Lehnert ◽  
Jacopo Chevallard ◽  
Stéphane Charlot
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
Star Formation History ◽  
Space Telescope ◽  
Formation History ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Stellar Masses ◽  
Dust Attenuation ◽  
The Impact

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.

scholarly journals ATLASGAL – Ammonia observations towards the southern Galactic plane

2018 ◽  
Vol 609 ◽  
pp. A125 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wienen ◽  
F. Wyrowski ◽  
K. M. Menten ◽  
J. S. Urquhart ◽  
C. M. Walmsley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Hyperfine Structure ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Line Width ◽  
Rotational Temperature ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Mass Star ◽  
Star Forming ◽  
Star Forming Regions ◽  
Low Mass

Context. The initial conditions of molecular clumps in which high-mass stars form are poorly understood. In particular, a more detailed study of the earliest evolutionary phases is needed. The APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the whole inner Galactic disk at 870 μm, ATLASGAL, has therefore been conducted to discover high-mass star-forming regions at different evolutionary phases. Aims. We derive properties such as velocities, rotational temperatures, column densities, and abundances of a large sample of southern ATLASGAL clumps in the fourth quadrant. Methods. Using the Parkes telescope, we observed the NH3 (1, 1) to (3, 3) inversion transitions towards 354 dust clumps detected by ATLASGAL within a Galactic longitude range between 300° and 359° and a latitude within ± 1.5°. For a subsample of 289 sources, the N2H+ (1–0) line was measured with the Mopra telescope. Results. We measured a median NH3 (1, 1) line width of ~ 2 km s-1, rotational temperatures from 12 to 28 K with a mean of 18 K, and source-averaged NH3 abundances from 1.6 × 10-6 to 10-8. For a subsample with detected NH3 (2, 2) hyperfine components, we found that the commonly used method to compute the (2, 2) optical depth from the (1, 1) optical depth and the (2, 2) to (1, 1) main beam brightness temperature ratio leads to an underestimation of the rotational temperature and column density. A larger median virial parameter of ~ 1 is determined using the broader N2H+ line width than is estimated from the NH3 line width of ~ 0.5 with a general trend of a decreasing virial parameter with increasing gas mass. We obtain a rising NH3 (1, 1)/N2H+ line-width ratio with increasing rotational temperature. Conclusions. A comparison of NH3 line parameters of ATLASGAL clumps to cores in nearby molecular clouds reveals smaller velocity dispersions in low-mass than high-mass star-forming regions and a warmer surrounding of ATLASGAL clumps than the surrounding of low-mass cores. The NH3 (1, 1) inversion transition of 49% of the sources shows hyperfine structure anomalies. The intensity ratio of the outer hyperfine structure lines with a median of 1.27 ± 0.03 and a standard deviation of 0.45 is significantly higher than 1, while the intensity ratios of the inner satellites with a median of 0.9 ± 0.02 and standard deviation of 0.3 and the sum of the inner and outer hyperfine components with a median of 1.06 ± 0.02 and standard deviation of 0.37 are closer to 1.

scholarly journals The NIBLES bivariate luminosity–H I mass distribution function revised using Arecibo follow-up observations

2020 ◽  
Vol 642 ◽  
pp. A175
Author(s):  
Z. Butcher ◽  
W. van Driel ◽  
S. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Mass Distribution ◽  
Radio Telescope ◽  
Luminosity Function ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Bivariate Analysis ◽  
Dimensional Distribution ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
The One ◽  
Mass Distribution Function

We present a modified optical luminosity–H I mass bivariate luminosity function based on H I line observations from the Nançay Interstellar Baryons Legacy Extragalactic Survey (NIBLES), including data from our new, four times more sensitive follow-up H I line observations obtained with the Arecibo radio telescope. The follow-up observations were designed to probe the underlying H I mass distribution of the NIBLES galaxies that were undetected or marginally detected in H I at the Nançay Radio Telescope. Our total follow-up sample consists of 234 galaxies, and it spans the entire luminosity and color range of the parent NIBLES sample of 2600 nearby (900 <  cz <  12 000 km s−1) SDSS galaxies. We incorporated the follow-up data into the bivariate analysis by scaling the NIBLES undetected fraction by an Arecibo-only distribution. We find the resulting increase in low H I mass-to-light ratio densities to be about 10% for the bins −1.0 ≤ log(MHI/M⊙/Lr/L⊙) ≤ −0.5, which produces an increased H I mass function (HIMF) low mass slope of α = −1.14 ± 0.07, being slightly shallower than the values of −1.35 ± 0.05 obtained by recent blind H I surveys. Applying the same correction to the optically corrected bivariate luminosity function from our previous paper produces a larger density increase of about 0.5 to 1 dex in the lowest H I mass-to-light ratio bins for a given luminosity while having a minimal effect on the resulting HIMF low mass slope, which still agrees with blind survey HIMFs. This indicates that while low H I-mass-to-light ratio galaxies do not contribute much to the one-dimensional HIMF, their inclusion has a significant impact on the densities in the two-dimensional distribution.

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