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arXiv · 0910.4424

What does the IMF really tell us about star formation?

M. B. N. Kouwenhoven·S. P. Goodwin
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Abstract

Obtaining accurate measurements of the initial mass function (IMF) is often considered to be the key to understanding star formation, and a universal IMF is often assumed to imply a universal star formation process. Here, we illustrate that different modes of star formation can result in the same IMF, and that, in order to truly understand star formation, a deeper understanding of the primordial binary population is necessary. Detailed knowledge on the binary fraction, mass ratio distribution, and other binary parameters, as a function of mass, is a requirement for recovering the star formation process from stellar population measurements.

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M. B. N. Kouwenhoven, S. P. Goodwin. 2009-10-23. What does the IMF really tell us about star formation?. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743921310003261

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