Extragalactic Constraints on the Initial Mass Function

Abstract

The local stellar mass density is observed to be significantly lower than the value obtained from integrating the cosmic star formation history (SFH), assuming that all the stars formed with a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF). Even other favoured IMFs, more successful in reconciling the observed $z=0$ stellar mass density with that inferred from the SFH, have difficulties in reproducing the stellar mass density observed at higher redshift. In this study we investigate to what extent this discrepancy can be alleviated for any universal power-law IMF. We find that an IMF with a high-mass slope shallower (2.15) than the Salpeter slope (2.35) reconciles the observed stellar mass density with the cosmic star formation history, but only at low redshifts. At higher redshifts $z>0.5$ we find that observed stellar mass densities are systematically lower than predicted from the cosmic star formation history, for any universal power-law IMF.

6 pages, 5 figures, accepted to MNRAS

References in corpus (17)

• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• On the variation of the Initial Mass Function
• Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence
• On the normalisation of the cosmic star formation history
• The Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• On the evolution of star forming galaxies
• Galactic-Field IMFs of Massive Stars
• The galaxy stellar mass-star formation rate relation: Evidence for an evolving stellar initial mass function?
• Constraints on a Universal IMF from UV to Near-IR Galaxy Luminosity Densities
• Recovering galaxy star formation and metallicity histories from spectra using VESPA
• Evidence of Cosmic Evolution of the Stellar Initial Mass Function
• The Evolution of Stellar Mass and the Implied Star Formation History
• The Variation of Integrated Star IMFs among Galaxies
• Implications for the formation of star clusters from extra-galactic star-formation rates
• On the Evolutionary History of Stars and their Fossil Mass and Light
• On the Similarity between Cluster and Galactic Stellar Initial Mass Functions
• Star formation histories from multi-band photometry: A new approach

Cited by in corpus (58)

• Cosmic Star Formation History
• A Universal Stellar Initial Mass Function? A Critical Look at Variations
• The Atlas3D project - XX. Mass-size and mass-sigma distributions of early-type galaxies: bulge fraction drives kinematics, mass-to-light ratio, molecular gas fraction and stellar initial mass function
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly: Stellar Mass Estimates
• The Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function of Galaxies from z=4.0 and the First Comprehensive Analysis of its Uncertainties: Evidence for Mass-dependent Evolution
• The applicability of FIR fine-structure lines as Star Formation Rate tracers over wide ranges of metallicities and galaxy types
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The galaxy stellar mass function at z < 0.06
• The evolution of massive black holes and their spins in their galactic hosts
• The stellar and sub-stellar IMF of simple and composite populations
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The star formation rate dependence of the stellar initial mass function
• The Cosmic Core-collapse Supernova Rate does not match the Massive-Star Formation Rate
• A new model of galaxy formation: How sensitive are predicted galaxy luminosities to the choice of SPS model?
• Fuel Efficient Galaxies: Sustaining Star Formation with Stellar Mass Loss
• High mass star formation in normal late-type galaxies: observational constraints to the IMF
• On Sizes, Kinematics, M/L Gradients, and Light Profiles of Massive Compact Galaxies at z~2
• On the Last 10 Billion Years of Stellar Mass Growth in Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Ultraviolet Spectrum of the Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy `The Cosmic Horseshoe': A Close-up of a Star-forming Galaxy at z = 2
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The galaxy stellar mass function to $z=0.1$ from the r-band selected equatorial regions
• Deep Absorption Line Studies of Quiescent Galaxies at z~2: The Dynamical Mass-Size Relation, and First Constraints on the Fundamental plane
• The Dawes Review 8: Measuring the Stellar Initial Mass Function
• The mmax-Mecl relation, the IMF and IGIMF: probabilistically sampled functions?
• Diverging UV and Halpha fluxes of star forming galaxies predicted by the IGIMF theory
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly: Evolution of the Halpha luminosity function and star formation rate density up to z<0.35
• A comparison between star formation rate diagnostics and rate of core collapse supernovae within 11 Mpc
• Stellar mass-to-light ratios from galaxy spectra: how accurate can they be?
• The galaxy-wide IMF of dwarf late-type to massive early-type galaxies
• Galactic chemical evolution in hierarchical formation models - I. Early-type galaxies in the local Universe
• The Nature of Sub-millimetre Galaxies in Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulations
• Impact of inter-correlated initial binary parameters on double black hole and neutron star mergers
• Two-phase galaxy evolution: the cosmic star-formation histories of spheroids and discs
• Physical properties of simulated galaxy populations at z=2 - I. Effect of metal-line cooling and feedback from star formation and AGN
• An IMF Study of the Dwarf Starburst Galaxy NGC 4214
• Initial Mass Function Variations Cannot Explain the Ionizing Spectrum of Low Metallicity Starbursts
• The dust content of QSO hosts at high redshift
• Star Formation in a Stellar Mass Selected Sample of Galaxies to z=3 from the GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS)
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The mass-metallicity relationship
• Modeling the Extragalactic Background Light and the Cosmic Star Formation History
• Top-heavy integrated galactic stellar initial mass functions (IGIMFs) in starbursts
• The Mid-Infrared Luminosities of Normal Galaxies over Cosmic Time
• The ugrizYJHK luminosity distributions and densities from the combined MGC, SDSS and UKIDSS LAS datasets
• Recalibrating the Cosmic Star Formation History
• Predictions for the intrinsic UV continuum properties of star forming galaxies and the implications for inferring dust extinction
• The Photometric Properties of Galaxies in the Early Universe
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Dust obscuration in galaxies and their recent star formation histories
• GAMA/H-ATLAS: The ultraviolet spectral slope and obscuration in galaxies
• Effects of stellar rotation on star formation rates and comparison to core-collapse supernova rates
• Star formation near an obscured AGN: Variations in the initial mass function
• The accuracy of the UV continuum as an indicator of the star formation rate in galaxies
• Calibration of star formation rate tracers for short- and long-lived star formation episodes
• Multiwavelength analysis of the Lyman alpha emitting galaxy Haro 2: relation between the diffuse Lyman alpha and soft X-ray emissions
• On the inconsistency between the estimates of cosmic star formation rate and stellar mass density of high redshift galaxies
• Non-Universal Stellar Initial Mass Functions: Large Uncertainties in Star Formation Rates at $z\approx 2-4$ and Other Astrophysical Probes
• Timescales for Low-Mass Star Formation in Extragalactic Environments: Implications for the Stellar IMF
• The red halos of SDSS low surface brightness disk galaxies
• Cosmic Chemical Evolution with an Early Population of Intermediate Mass Stars
• The stellar mass function and efficiency of galaxy formation with a varying initial mass function
• Trends in Molecular Emission from Different Extragalactic Stellar Initial Mass Functions
• Chemical evolution history of MaNGA galaxies