The Salpeter IMF and its descendants
Pavel Kroupa (Uni Bonn/ Prague), Tereza Jerabkova (Uni Bonn/Prague/ESO, Garching)
TL;DR
This paper reviews the historical development and current debates surrounding the stellar initial mass function (IMF), highlighting challenges to its invariance and discussing its significance in understanding cosmic matter cycles.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive overview of the Salpeter IMF's legacy and examines recent evidence questioning its invariance in different astrophysical environments.
Findings
Evidence challenges the invariance of the IMF.
The IMF's role is crucial in understanding the matter cycle.
Historical perspective on Salpeter's foundational work.
Abstract
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is the key to understanding the matter cycle in the Universe. Edwin Salpeter's paper of 1955 founded this research field. Evidence today, however, challenges the initial mass function as an invariant probability distribution function.
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