Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: The Effect of Star Formation History on the Inferred Initial Stellar
  Mass Function   Peaks and lulls in the star formation rate (SFR) over the history of the
Galaxy produce plateaux and declines in the present day mass function (PDMF)
where the main-sequence lifetime overlaps the age and duration of the SFR
variation. These PDMF features can be misinterpreted as the form of the
intrinsic stellar initial mass function (IMF) if the star formation rate is
assumed to be constant or slowly varying with time. This effect applies to all
regions that have formed stars for longer than the age of the most massive
stars, including OB associations, star complexes, and especially galactic field
stars. Related problems may apply to embedded clusters. Evidence is summarized
for temporal SFR variations from parsec scales to entire galaxies, all of which
should contribute to inferred IMF distortions. We give examples of various star
formation histories to demonstrate the types of false IMF structures that might
be seen. These include short-duration bursts, stochastic histories with
log-normal amplitude distributions, and oscillating histories with various
periods and phases. The inferred IMF should appear steeper than the intrinsic
IMF over mass ranges where the stellar lifetimes correspond to times of
decreasing SFRs; shallow portions of the inferred IMF correspond to times of
increasing SFRs. If field regions are populated by dispersed clusters and
defined by their low current SFRs, then they should have steeper inferred IMFs
than the clusters. The SFRs required to give the steep field IMFs in the LMC
and SMC are determined. Structure observed in several determinations of the
Milky Way field star IMF can be accounted for by a stochastic and bursty star
formation history.

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The categories of this paper are: funct-an
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The categories of this paper are: patt-sol
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The categories of this paper are: math-ph
1
The categories of this paper are: cs
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The categories of this paper are: nucl-ex
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The categories of this paper are: q-bio
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The categories of this paper are: q-fin
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The categories of this paper are: hep-ph
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The categories of this paper are: hep-lat
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The categories of this paper are: nlin
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The categories of this paper are: dg-ga
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The categories of this paper are: supr-con
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The categories of this paper are: atom-ph
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The categories of this paper are: solv-int
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The categories of this paper are: econ
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The categories of this paper are: adap-org