Sampling methods for stellar masses and the mmax-Mecl relation in the starburst dwarf galaxy NGC 4214

Abstract

It has been claimed in the recent literature that a non-trivial relation between the mass of the most-massive star, mmax, in a star cluster and its embedded star cluster mass (the mmax-Mecl relation) is falsified by observations of the most-massive stars and the Halpha luminosity of young star clusters in the starburst dwarf galaxy NGC 4214. Here it is shown by comparing the NGC 4214 results with observations from the Milky Way that NGC 4214 agrees very well with the predictions of the the mmax-Mecl relation and the integrated galactic stellar initial mass function (IGIMF) theory and that this difference in conclusions is based on a high degree of degeneracy between expectations from random sampling and those from the mmax-Mecl relation, but are also due to interpreting mmax as a truncation mass in a randomly sampled IMF. Additional analysis of galaxies with lower SFRs than those currently presented in the literature will be required to break this degeneracy.

13 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication by MNRAS, correction of typos, text clarifications

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• The origin of discrete multiple stellar populations in globular clusters
• The initial mass function of stars and the star-formation rates of galaxies
• When did the initial mass function become bottom-heavy?