Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): The star formation rate dependence of the stellar initial mass function
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 415, No. 2, Year 2011
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) describes the distribution in stellar masses produced from a burst of star formation. For more than 50 yr, the implicit assumption underpinning most areas of research involving the IMF has been that it is universal, regardless of time and environment. We measure the high-mass IMF slope for a sample of low-to-moderate redshift galaxies from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey. The large range in luminosities and galaxy masses of the sample permits the exploration of underlying IMF dependencies. A strong IMF-star formation rate dependency is discovered, which shows that highly star-forming galaxies form proportionally more massive stars (they have IMFs with flatter power-law slopes) than galaxies with low star formation rates. This has a significant impact on a wide variety of galaxy evolution studies, all of which rely on assumptions about the slope of the IMF. Our result is supported by, and provides an explanation for, the results of numerous recent explorations suggesting a variation of or evolution in the IMF. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.
Authors & Co-Authors
Gunawardhana, Madusha L.P.
Australia, Sydney
Macquarie University
Australia
Australian Astronomical Observatory
Australia, Sydney
The University of Sydney
Hopkins, Andrew M.
Australia
Australian Astronomical Observatory
Sharp, Rob G.
Australia
Australian Astronomical Observatory
Brough, Sarah
Australia
Australian Astronomical Observatory
Taylor, Edward N.
Australia, Sydney
The University of Sydney
Bland-Hawthorn, Joss
Australia, Sydney
The University of Sydney
Maraston, Claudia
United Kingdom, Portsmouth
University of Portsmouth
Tuffs, Richard J.
Germany, Heidelberg
Max-planck-institut Für Kernphysik
Popescu, Cristina C.
United Kingdom, Preston
University of Central Lancashire
Wijesinghe, Dinuka B.
Australia, Sydney
The University of Sydney
Jones, Daniel Heath
Australia
Australian Astronomical Observatory
Australia, Clayton
Monash University
Croom, Scott M.
Australia, Sydney
The University of Sydney
Sadler, Elaine M.
Australia, Sydney
The University of Sydney
Wilkins, Stephen M.
United Kingdom, Oxford
University of Oxford
Driver, Simon P.
United Kingdom, St Andrews
University of st Andrews
Liske, Jochen
Germany, Garching Bei Munchen
European Southern Observatory
Norberg, Peder R.
United Kingdom, Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh
Baldry, Ivan K.
United Kingdom, Liverpool
Liverpool John Moores University
Bamford, Steven P.
United Kingdom, Nottingham
University of Nottingham
Loveday, Jon N.
United Kingdom, Brighton
University of Sussex
Peacock, John A.
United Kingdom, Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh
Robotham, Aaron S.G.
United Kingdom, St Andrews
University of st Andrews
Zucker, Daniel B.
Australia, Sydney
Macquarie University
Australia
Australian Astronomical Observatory
Parker, Quentin A.
Australia, Sydney
Macquarie University
Australia
Australian Astronomical Observatory
Conselice, Christopher J.
United Kingdom, Nottingham
University of Nottingham
Cameron, Ewan
United Kingdom, St Andrews
University of st Andrews
Switzerland, Zurich
Eth Zürich
Frenk, Carlos S.
United Kingdom, Durham
Durham University
Hill, David T.
United Kingdom, St Andrews
University of st Andrews
Kelvin, Lee S.
United Kingdom, St Andrews
University of st Andrews
Kuijken, Konrad H.
Netherlands, Leiden
Universiteit Leiden
Madore, Barry F.
Unknown Affiliation
Nichol, Robert C.
Germany, Heidelberg
Max-planck-institut Für Kernphysik
Parkinson, Hannah R.
United Kingdom, Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh
Pimbblet, Kevin A.
Australia, Clayton
Monash University
Prescott, Matthew
United Kingdom, Liverpool
Liverpool John Moores University
Sutherland, William J.
United Kingdom, London
Queen Mary University of London
Thomas, Daniel B.
Germany, Heidelberg
Max-planck-institut Für Kernphysik
van Kampen, Eelco V.
Germany, Garching Bei Munchen
European Southern Observatory
Statistics
Citations: 171
Authors: 38
Affiliations: 18
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.18800.x
ISSN:
00358711
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative