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The systematically varying stellar IMF
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2020
Abstract
Some ultra-compact dwarf galaxies have large dynamical mass to light (M / L) ratios and also appear to contain an overabundance of LMXB sources, and some Milky Way globular clusters have a low concentration and appear to have a deficit of low-mass stars. These observations can be explained if the stellar IMF becomes increasingly top-heavy with decreasing metallicity and increasing gas density of the forming object. The thus constrained stellar IMF then accounts for the observed trend of metallicity and M / L ratio found amongst M31 globular star clusters. It also accounts for the overall shift of the observationally deduced galaxy-wide IMF from top-light to top-heavy with increasing star formation rate amongst galaxies. If the IMF varies similarly to deduced here, then extremely young very massive star-burst clusters observed at a high redshift would appear quasar-like (Jerabkova et al. 2017).
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- Contributed Papers
- Information
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 14 , Symposium S351: Star Clusters: From the Milky Way to the Early Universe , May 2019 , pp. 117 - 121
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- © International Astronomical Union 2020
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