AN INITIAL MASS FUNCTION STUDY OF THE DWARF STARBURST GALAXY NGC 4214

Journal Article · Wed Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/767/1/51· OSTI ID:22167401

Andrews, J. E.; Calzetti, D. ^[1]; Chandar, R. ^[2]; Lee, J. C.; Whitmore, B. ^[3]; Elmegreen, B. G. ^[4]; Kennicutt, R. C. ^[5]; Kissel, J. S. ^[6]; Da Silva, Robert L.; Krumholz, Mark R. ^[7]; O'Connell, R. W. ^[8]; Dopita, M. A. ^[9]; Frogel, Jay A. ^[10]; Kim, Hwihyun ^[11]

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1. Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606 (United States)
3. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
4. IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States)
5. Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
6. Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
7. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
8. Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 3818, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
9. Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Cotter Road, Weston, ACT 2611 (Australia)
10. Galaxies Unlimited, 1 Tremblant Court, Lutherville, MD (United States)
11. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404 (United States)

The production rate of ionizing photons in young ({<=}8 Myr), unresolved stellar clusters in the nearby irregular galaxy NGC 4214 is probed using multi-wavelength Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 data. We normalize the ionizing photon rate by the cluster mass to investigate the upper end of the stellar initial mass function (IMF). We have found that within the uncertainties the upper end of the stellar IMF appears to be universal in this galaxy, and that deviations from a universal IMF can be attributed to stochastic sampling of stars in clusters with masses {approx}<10{sup 3} M{sub Sun }. Furthermore, we have found that there does not seem to be a dependence of the maximum stellar mass on the cluster mass. We have also found that for massive clusters, feedback may cause an underrepresentation in H{alpha} luminosities, which needs to be taken into account when conducting this type of analysis.

• OSTI ID: 22167401
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 767, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
DWARF STARS
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
MASS
PHOTONS
SAMPLING
STAR CLUSTERS
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
TELESCOPES
WAVELENGTHS