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| Paper: |
OB Stars in Stochastic Regimes |
| Volume: |
440, UP2010: Have Observations Revealed a Variable Upper End of the Initial Mass Function? |
| Page: |
73 |
| Authors: |
Oey, M. S.; Lamb, J. B.; Werk, J. K.; Clarke, C. J. |
| Abstract: |
The highest-mass stars have the lowest frequency in the stellar initial mass function (IMF), and they are
also the most easily observed stars. Thus, the counting statistics for OB stars
provide important tests for the fundamental nature and quantitative parameters
of the IMF. We first examine some local statistics for the stellar upper-mass limit itself.
Then, we examine the parameter space and statistics for extremely sparse clusters
that contain OB stars, in the SMC. We find that thus far, these
locally observed counting statistics are consistent with a constant
stellar upper-mass limit. The sparse OB star clusters easily fall
within the parameter space of Monte Carlo simulations of cluster
populations. If the observed objects are representative of their
cluster birth masses, their existence implies that the maximum stellar mass is
largely independent of the parent cluster mass. |
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