Implications of a Temperature Dependent IMF I: Photometric Template Fitting

Abstract

A universal stellar initial mass function (IMF) should not be expected from theoretical models of star formation, but little conclusive observational evidence for a variable IMF has been uncovered. In this paper, a parameterization of the IMF is introduced into photometric template fitting of the COSMOS2015 catalog. The resulting best-fit templates suggest systematic variations in the IMF, with most galaxies exhibiting top-heavier stellar populations than in the Milky Way. At fixed redshift, only a small range of IMFs are found, with the typical IMF becoming progressively top-heavier with increasing redshift. Additionally, subpopulations of ULIRGs, quiescent- and star-forming galaxies are compared with predictions of stellar population feedback and show clear qualitative similarities to the evolution of dust temperatures.

Published in the 'The Astrophysical Journal'

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• The evolution of the galaxy UV luminosity function at redshifts z ~ 8-15 from deep JWST and ground-based near-infrared imaging
• Implications of a Temperature Dependent IMF II: An Updated View of the Star-Forming Main Sequence
• Impact of stellar population synthesis choices on forward modelling-based redshift distribution estimates
• Galaxy formation from a timescale perspective