Kroupa initial mass function

E887941

The Kroupa initial mass function is a widely used mathematical description of the distribution of stellar masses at birth, refining earlier forms by incorporating a multi-part power-law that better matches observations across low- and high-mass stars.

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Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf initial mass function
stellar population model
appliesTo resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies
stars in the Milky Way
stellar populations
assumes single-star IMF for most applications
universal form in the Milky Way disk
basedOn observed stellar mass distributions
characterizedBy different slopes at low and high stellar masses
piecewise power-law slopes
comparedWith Chabrier initial mass function NERFINISHED
Salpeter initial mass function NERFINISHED
describes distribution of stellar masses at birth
field astrophysics
cosmology
galactic astronomy
stellar astrophysics
hasLowerMassLimit approximately 0.01 solar masses
hasMathematicalForm multi-part power-law
hasSlopeAbove0.5SolarMasses approximately -2.3 in logarithmic form
hasSlopeBelow0.5SolarMasses approximately -1.3 in logarithmic form
hasUpperMassLimit approximately 100 solar masses
hasVariant bottom-light Kroupa IMF NERFINISHED
canonical Kroupa IMF
top-heavy Kroupa IMF NERFINISHED
influences black hole and neutron star formation rates in simulations
integrated light of stellar populations
ionizing photon production in galaxies
rate of core-collapse supernovae in models
isAlternativeTo log-normal plus power-law IMFs
isStandardChoiceIn many N-body simulations of star clusters
many extragalactic stellar population studies
namedAfter Pavel Kroupa NERFINISHED
publishedIn Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society NERFINISHED
refines Salpeter initial mass function NERFINISHED
relatedTo galactic stellar mass function
star formation theory
stellar evolution
usedFor chemical evolution models of galaxies
cosmological simulations with baryons
estimating stellar mass-to-light ratios
estimating total stellar mass of galaxies
galaxy evolution modeling
simulations of star clusters
stellar population synthesis
yearProposed 2001

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Salpeter initial mass function relatedTo Kroupa initial mass function