4.7 Article

Does turbulence determine the initial mass function?

Journal

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 465, Issue 1, Pages 105-110

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw2770

Keywords

brown dwarfs; stars: formation; stars: low-mass; stars: luminosity function, mass function

Funding

  1. Swinburne University
  2. Australian Government
  3. Australian Research Council [DP130102078, FT130100034]
  4. Australian Research Council [FT130100034] Funding Source: Australian Research Council

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We test the hypothesis that the initial mass function (IMF) is determined by the density probability distribution function (PDF) produced by supersonic turbulence. We compare 14 simulations of star cluster formation in 50 M-circle dot molecular cloud cores where the initial turbulence contains either purely solenoidal or purely compressive modes, in each case resolving fragmentation to the opacity limit to determine the resultant IMF. We find statistically indistinguishable IMFs between the two sets of calculations, despite a factor of 2 difference in the star formation rate and in the standard deviation of log (rho). This suggests that the density PDF, while determining the star formation rate, is not the primary driver of the IMF.

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