Abstract Details
| Name: Indulekha Kavila Affiliation: Mahatma Gandhi University Conference ID: ASI2016_956 Title : Implications of Star Cluster Formation Scenarios for the IMF Authors and Co-Authors : Anu Babu, School of Pure & Applied Physics, Mahatma Gandhi University, P D Hills PO, Kottayam 686560 KERALA Abstract Type : Poster Abstract Category : Stars, The Milky Way Galaxy and its neighbours Abstract : The stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) is an important input into our study of the universe, the low mass end contributing long lived, low luminosity objects to their parent galaxies and massive stars leading short but spectacular lives, producing large and lasting changes in their environments, driving evolution. The universality or otherwise of the IMF is a hotly debated question which gives varying answers between ddifferent samples and different locations. The IMF shows the following general feature - a rise from the lower masses changing, beyond a turnover, into a drop best fitted by a power law, at the high mass end. Universality is proscribed for the IMF on the grounds of the scale-free nature of the physical processes that are thought to be decisive in the process of star formation -viz turbulence and gravity. Explorations of turbulent fragmentation scenarios also do produce results that share some universal features -like a Salpeter like slope at the high mass end and a turnover mass that is seen to be dependent on the Jeans' mass of the system. Given the observations and the results of various analyses of the IMF, we examine the implications of various scenarios for the formation of bound stellar clusters (like a density dependent Star Formation Efficiency for example) for the nature of the IMF. |