Variability in the stellar initial mass function at low and high mass: 3-component IMF models

Abstract

Three component models of the IMF are made to consider possible origins for the observed relative variations in the numbers of brown dwarfs, solar-to-intermediate mass stars, and high mass stars. Three distinct physical processes are noted. The characteristic mass for most star formation is identified with the thermal Jeans mass in the molecular cloud core, and this presumably leads to the middle mass range by the usual collapse and accretion processes. Pre-stellar condensations (PSCs) observed in mm-wave continuum studies presumably form at this mass. Significantly smaller self-gravitating masses require much larger pressures and may arise following dynamical processes inside these PSCs, including disk formation, tight-cluster ejection, and photoevaporation as studied elsewhere, but also gravitational collapse of shocked gas in colliding PSCs. Significantly larger stellar masses form in relatively low abundance by normal cloud processes, possibly leading to steep IMFs in low-pressure field regions, but this mass range can be significantly extended in high pressure cloud cores by gravitationally-focussed gas accretion onto PSCs and by the coalescence of PSCs. These models suggest that the observed variations in brown dwarf, solar-to-intermediate mass, and high mass populations are the result of dynamical effects that depend on environmental density and velocity dispersion. They accommodate observations ranging from shallow IMFs in cluster cores to Salpeter IMFs in average clusters and whole galaxies to steep and even steeper IMFs in field and remote field regions. They also suggest how the top-heavy IMFs in some starburst clusters may originate and they explain bottom-heavy IMFs in low surface brightness galaxies.