Response to comment on "An excess of massive stars in the local 30 Doradus starburst"

TL;DR

This paper defends the original finding of an excess of massive stars in 30 Doradus, clarifying that reanalysis confirms the initial results but underpredicts the number of the most massive stars, reinforcing the conclusion.

Contribution

It provides a response to critiques by reaffirming the excess of massive stars in 30 Doradus using reanalysis data.

Findings

Reanalysis confirms the initial mass function slopes for high-mass stars.

Reanalysis underpredicts the number of stars above 30 solar masses.

The excess of massive stars in 30 Doradus is supported despite methodological differences.

Abstract

Farr and Mandel reanalyse our data, finding initial-mass-function slopes for high mass stars in 30 Doradus that agree with our results. However, their reanalysis appears to underpredict the observed number of massive stars. Their technique results in more precise slopes than in our work, strengthening our conclusion that there is an excess of massive stars above $30\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ in 30 Doradus.