The Peak of the Stellar Initial Mass Function

Shantanu Basu (University of Western Ontario)

August 23, 2018

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Abstract: Many theories have been developed over the years to explain the power-law tail of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), and some have modelled it as a hybrid function that is like a lognormal but having a power law tail. I review some ideas and focus on the idea that while there is at least some observational evidence for a peak in the IMF, an origin for such a peak is poorly understood. I present work done in the context of star formation as a killed accretion process that can provide an explanation for the existence of an IMF peak.