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تسجيل مستخدم جديدThe relationship between the prestellar core mass function and the stellar initial mass function
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Simon P Goodwin
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Stars form from dense molecular cores, and the mass function of these cores (the CMF) is often found to be similar to the form of the stellar initial mass function (IMF). This suggests that the form of the IMF is the result of the form of the CMF. However, most stars are thought to form in binary and multiple systems, therefore the relationship between the IMF and the CMF cannot be trivial. We test two star formation scenarios - one in which all stars form as binary or triple systems, and one in which low-mass stars form in a predominantly single mode. We show that from a log-normal CMF, similar to those observed, and expected on theoretical grounds, the model in which all stars form as multiples gives a better fit to the IMF.
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We present a simple statistical analysis of recent numerical simulations exploring the correlation between the core mass function obtained from the fragmentation of a molecular cloud and the stellar mass function which forms from these collapsing cor
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