The initial mass function for massive stars
C. D. Garmany, P. S. Conti, C. Chiosi;
ApJ, 1982, 263, 777
ABSTRACT:A machine readable catalog of over 750 galactic O stars with published photometry, spectral types, and luminosity classes has been compiled.
The
catalog is probably complete to a distance of about 2.5 kpc.
From this
volume-limited data, the initial mass function (IMF) for stars more massive than 20
solar masses has been derived.
This IMF differs from that of Miller and Scalo
(1979) and of Lequeux (1979), in having proportionately more O type stars and
not as steep a fall-off in number of stars with increasing mass.
Dividing
the sample into stars inside and outside the solar circle, a substantial
difference in the IMF of the most massive stars is found.
There are proportionally
more toward the galactic center.
This gradient in the IMF may be related to
the observed space density of Wolf-Rayet stars, which are descendants of O
type stars.
KEYWORDS: astronomical catalogs, milky way galaxy, o stars, star distribution, stellar mass, supermassive stars, wolf-rayet stars, hertzsprung-russell diagram, mass to light ratios, stellar evolution, stellar luminosity, stellar spectra, ubv spectra
CODE: garmany82