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Stochastic Star Formation and a (Nearly) Uniform Stellar Initial Mass Function by Fumagalli, Michele; da Silva, Robert L.; Krumholz, Mark R. is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Stochastic Star Formation and a (Nearly) Uniform Stellar Initial Mass Function about?

Recent observations indicate a lower Halpha to FUV ratio in dwarf galaxies than in brighter systems, a trend that could be explained by a truncated and/or steeper IMF in small galaxies. However, at low star formation rates (SFRs), the Halpha to FUV ratio can vary due to stochastic sampling even for a universal IMF, a hypothesis that has, prior to this work, received limited investigation. Using SLUG, a fully stochastic code for synthetic photometry in star clusters and galaxies, we compare the Halpha and FUV luminosity in a sample of ~450 nearby galaxies with models drawn from a universal Kroupa IMF and a modified IMF, the integrated galactic initial mass function (IGIMF). Once random sampling and time evolution are included, a Kroupa IMF convolved with the cluster mass function reproduces the observed Halpha distribution at all FUV luminosities, while a truncated IMF as implemented in current IGIMF models underpredicts the Halpha luminosity by more than an order of magnitude at the lowest SFRs. We conclude that the observed luminosity is the result of the joint probability distribution function of the SFR, cluster mass function, and a universal IMF, consistent with parts of the IG

Author

Fumagalli, Michele; da Silva, Robert L.; Krumholz, Mark R.

Published

2011

Language

EN