Fragmentation of Molecular clouds and Initial Mass Function (IMF)

Séminaire IPAG de Tanuka Chattopadhyay (Calcutta University), jeudi 28 juin 2012 à 11h00, IPAG seminar room

Stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) is an important aspect for delineating a clear picture of star formation scenario in a broad spectrum of environments — from star clusters, associations, field stars to much bigger ones like dwarf galaxies, giant galaxies, cluster of galaxies etc. A stochastic model has been developed for the hierarchical fragmentation of a molecular cloud. Here, the number of fragments, time between successive fragmentation steps, and mass of a fragment are considered as random variables, and fragment masses are generated using the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm. The resulting mass spectra, computed at different projected distances and taking opacity into consideration, show a signature of mass segregation. The critical mass, mass spectrum, and mass segregation are consistent with the observations of young massive clusters in our Galaxy as well as in external galaxies.