Evidence for a constant initial mass function in early-type galaxies based on their X-ray binary populations

Journal Article · Tue Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/784/2/162· OSTI ID:22357230

Peacock, Mark B.; Zepf, Stephen E. ^[1]; Maccarone, Thomas J. ^[2]; Kundu, Arunav ^[3]; Gonzalez, Anthony H. ^[4]; Lehmer, Bret D. ^[5]; Maraston, Claudia ^[6]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States)
2. Texas Tech University, Physics Department, Box 41051, Lubbock, TX 79409 (United States)
3. Eureka Scientific, Inc., 2452 Delmer Street, Suite 100 Oakland, CA 94602 (United States)
4. Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States)
5. The Johns Hopkins University, Homewood Campus, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
6. Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth PO1 3FX (United Kingdom)

A number of recent studies have proposed that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) of early type galaxies varies systematically as a function of galaxy mass, with higher mass galaxies having bottom-heavy IMFs. These bottom-heavy IMFs have more low-mass stars relative to the number of high mass stars, and therefore naturally result in proportionally fewer neutron stars (NSs) and black holes (BHs). In this paper, we specifically predict the variation in the number of BHs and NSs based on the power-law IMF variation required to reproduce the observed mass-to-light ratio trends with galaxy mass. We then test whether such variations are observed by studying the field low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) populations of nearby early-type galaxies. In these binaries, an NS or BH accretes matter from a low-mass donor star. Their number is therefore expected to scale with the number of BHs and NSs present in a galaxy. We find that the number of LMXBs per K-band light is similar among the galaxies in our sample. These data therefore demonstrate the uniformity of the slope of the IMF from massive stars down to those now dominating the K-band light and are consistent with an invariant IMF. Our results are inconsistent with an IMF which varies from a Kroupa/Chabrier like IMF for low-mass galaxies to a steep power-law IMF (with slope x = 2.8) for high mass galaxies. We discuss how these observations constrain the possible forms of the IMF variations and how future Chandra observations can enable sharper tests of the IMF.

• OSTI ID: 22357230
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 784; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
MASS
NEUTRON STARS
VISIBLE RADIATION
X RADIATION