A minimum hypothesis explanation for an IMF with a lognormal body and power law tail

Abstract

We present a minimum hypothesis model for an IMF that resembles a lognormal distribution at low masses but has a distinct power-law tail. Even if the central limit theorem ensures a lognormal distribution of condensation masses at birth, a power-law tail in the distribution arises due to accretion from the ambient cloud, coupled with a non-uniform (exponential) distribution of accretion times.

arXiv comment2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in IMF@50, eds. E. Corbelli, F. Palla, and H. Zinnecker, Kluwer, Astrophysics and Space Science Library

References in corpus (2)

• The Luminosity & Mass Function of the Trapezium Cluster: From B stars to the Deuterium Burning Limit
• On the Power-Law Tail in the Mass Function of Protostellar Condensations and Stars

Cited by in corpus (1)

• On the mass function of stars growing in a flocculent medium