The Initial Mass Function Based on the Full-sky 20-pc Census of $\sim$3,600 Stars and Brown Dwarfs

TL;DR

This study constructs a comprehensive 20-parsec census of approximately 3,600 stars and brown dwarfs using Gaia and other surveys, deriving the initial mass function across stellar and substellar regimes with detailed power-law fits.

Contribution

It provides the first complete, volume-limited initial mass function for nearby stars and brown dwarfs, extending to very low masses with improved accuracy and new power-law parameters.

Findings

Good agreement with previous IMFs above 0.8 M_sun

Divergence at lower masses indicating a change in formation rate

Star to brown dwarf ratio is approximately 4:1

Abstract

A complete accounting of nearby objects -- from the highest-mass white dwarf progenitors down to low-mass brown dwarfs -- is now possible, thanks to an almost complete set of trigonometric parallax determinations from Gaia, ground-based surveys, and Spitzer follow-up. We create a census of objects within a Sun-centered sphere of 20-pc radius and check published literature to decompose each binary or higher-order system into its separate components. The result is a volume-limited census of $\sim$3,600 individual star formation products useful in measuring the initial mass function across the stellar ($<8 M_\odot$) and substellar ($\gtrsim 5 M_{Jup}$) regimes. Comparing our resulting initial mass function to previous measurements shows good agreement above 0.8$M_\odot$ and a divergence at lower masses. Our 20-pc space densities are best fit with a quadripartite power law, $\xi(M) = dN/dM \propto M^{-\alpha}$ with long-established values of $\alpha = 2.3$ at high masses ($0.55 < M < 8.00 M_\odot$) and $\alpha = 1.3$ at intermediate masses ($0.22 < M < 0.55 M_\odot$), but at lower masses we find $\alpha = 0.25$ for $0.05 < M <0.22 M_\odot$ and $\alpha = 0.6$ for $0.01 < M < 0.05 M_\odot$. This implies that the rate of production as a function of decreasing mass diminishes in the low-mass star/high-mass brown dwarf regime before increasing again in the low-mass brown dwarf regime. Correcting for completeness, we find a star to brown dwarf number ratio of, currently, 4:1, and an average mass per object of 0.41 $M_\odot$.