LMSU: Initial Mass Function Mystery Solved

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LMSU: Initial Mass Function Mystery Solved

Post by bystander » Mon Jun 06, 2016 8:25 pm

The Mystery of the Initial Mass Function Solved
Lomonosov Moscow State University | via EurekAlert | 2016 Jun 06

A method used to study Facebook, proteins and power grids successfully applied to stars
[img3="A model of the interstellar medium having a fractal density distribution. Dense cores where proto-stars are forming are marked and gravitational forces generated by them are shown. (Credit: Igor Chilingarian, Andrei Klishin)"]http://media.eurekalert.org/multimedia_ ... 73_web.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
For the first time, scientists used methods of network science to solve a fundamental astrophysical problem -- explaining the so-called "initial mass function", a distribution of stars by mass in galaxies and starclusters. ...

The knowledge of how exactly stars in a galaxy or a star cluster are distributed by mass is crucially important for astronomers. A stellar system is like a big family where all members interact with each other. They delineate the "living space" in a certain way and react to external influence according to the same physical laws. In order to better understand, how members of that "family" affect each other's evolution, astronomers need to know what types of stars the "family" consists of -- i.e. to have the data of how many stars of each mass are there in the system.

Igor Chilingarian and Andrei Klishin described a system of proto-stars which evolve by absorbing gas from the diffuse interstellar medium as a spatial network growing by the principle of the preferential attachment: a node having many links creates new links even faster. In the interstellar medium, links are gravitational forces acting between molecular dense cores that will later form stars. "We demonstrated that a power law that the stellar initial mass function follows is formed independently of the initial mass distribution of proto-stars if the density distribution in the interstellar cloud is fractal. This fractal distribution directly follows from the classical theory of turbulence developed by the Soviet mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov. We encounter fractal, or self-similar objects on a daily basis. Among others, clouds in Earth's atmosphere, snowflakes and even some fruits and vegetables such as cauliflower or broccoli all have fractal properties", comments Igor Chilingarian. ...

Explaining the stellar initial mass function with the theory of spatial networks - Andrei Klishin, Igor Chilingarian
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