一种测量恒星初始质量函数变化的方法
A Method for Measuring Variations in the Stellar Initial Mass Function
摘要：
我们提出了一种方法来调查的变化，在恒星初始质量函数（IMF）的上端探测电离光子的生产率在未解决的，紧凑的星团的年龄<~10万年和不同的质量。我们通过对附近星系NGC 5194（M51 a）中的年轻星系团人口进行试点研究来测试这种方法，哈勃太空望远镜的多波长观测可用。我们的结果表明，该方法可以探测位于至少~10 Mpc的星系中IMF的上端，即，比通过计算年轻致密星团中的单个恒星可能的距离远200倍。我们对NGC 5194的研究结果表明，IMF的上质量端对星团质量的依赖性不明显，直到~1000 M_sun，尽管需要对低质量星团和其他星系进行更广泛的分析来证实这一结论。
英文摘要：
We present a method for investigating variations in the upper end of the stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) by probing the production rate of ionizing photons in unresolved, compact star clusters with ages <~10 Myr and with different masses. We test this method by performing a pilot study on the young cluster population in the nearby galaxy NGC5194 (M51a), for which multi-wavelength observations from the Hubble Space Telescope are available. Our results indicate that the proposed method can probe the upper end of the IMF in galaxies located out to at least ~10 Mpc, i.e., a factor ~200 further away than possible by counting individual stars in young compact clusters. Our results for NGC5194 show no obvious dependence of the upper mass end of the IMF on the mass of the star cluster down to ~1000 M_sun, although more extensive analyses involving lower mass clusters and other galaxies are needed to confirm this conclusion.
机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来，可能存在错误，请以论文正文为准。
