On the variation of the initial mass function

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 322; no. 2; pp. 231 - 246
• Main Author: Kroupa, Pavel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.04.2001
• Subjects: binaries: general; globular clusters: general; mass function; open clusters and associations: general; stars: formation; stars: kinematics; stars: luminosity function; stars: luminosity function, mass function
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04022.x

A universal initial mass function (IMF) is not intuitive, but so far no convincing evidence for a variable IMF exists. The detection of systematic variations of the IMF with star-forming conditions would be the Rosetta Stone for star formation. In this contribution an average or Galactic-field IMF i...