Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function

GCGilles Chabrier

Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 · École Normale Supérieure de Lyon · +1 more institution

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Abstract

We review recent determinations of the present day and initial mass functions in various components of the Galaxy, disk, spheroid, young and globular clusters. As a general feature, the IMF is well described by a power-law form for $m\ga 1 \msol$ and a lognormal form below. The extension of the disk IMF into the brown dwarf (BD) regime is in good agreement with observations and yields a disk BD number-density comparable to the stellar one $\sim 0.1 \pc3$. The IMF of young clusters is found to be consistent with the disk field IMF, providing the same correction for unresolved binaries. The spheroid IMF relies on much less robust grounds. Within all the uncertainties, it is found to be similar to the one derived…

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Authors

1
  • GC
    Gilles ChabrierCorresponding

    Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Topics & keywords

Keywords
  • Globular cluster
  • Initial mass function
  • Brown dwarf
  • Context (archaeology)
  • Star formation
  • Stellar mass
  • Log-normal distribution
  • Star cluster
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