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IMF variations in dwarf galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2005

C. Weidner  and
P. Kroupa
C. Weidner
Affiliation:
Observatory of the University of Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 71, D-53121 Bonn, Germany email: [email protected],de, [email protected],de
P. Kroupa
Affiliation:
Observatory of the University of Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 71, D-53121 Bonn, Germany email: [email protected],de, [email protected],de
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Abstract

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Dwarf galaxies tend to have a large spread in metal abundances and overall lower metallicites than large Spiral or Elliptical ones. Here we propose that if all stars are formed from an invariant canonical IMF within each star cluster which are distributed according to an embedded cluster mass function (ECMF), then the integrated stellar IMF over the whole galaxy (the integrated galaxial IMF, IGIMF) must be steeper than the canonical IMFs within the clusters, and additionally they must depended on the stellar mass of the galaxy. In particular, dwarf galaxies and low-surface brightness galaxies show steeper galaxial IMFs which vary strongly with the star-formation rate. The resulting number of Supernovae II per low-mass star, and the chemical enrichment history of these galaxies therefore vary substantially depending on the galaxy assembly history.

Keywords

galaxies: abundancesgalaxies: dwarfgalaxies: luminosity functionmass functiongalaxies: star clustersgalaxies: stellar content
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 1 , Colloquium C198: Near-Field Cosmology with Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies , March 2005 , pp. 130 - 133
Copyright
© 2005 International Astronomical Union