Initial mass function - power law

[dntsmzns]

Hello, world :)

My first post here.

I have to choose a topic for a project in astrophysics. I intend to major in astronomy and it's my first year of studies, so I don't have much knowledge so far, though I don't mind picking a 'heavy' topic for this assignment - I know I'll benefit from this later.

One of the topics is:
Why (for what astrophysical reasons) the IMF obeys a power law?

Is it possible to answer this question in three to four pages?
Can you recommend some literature / papers on this topic?

Thank you very much. Glad to join you.

 

[harcel]

Wow, that's a risky one. I think nobody knows why (and if at all) the IMF is or should eb a power-law. At least at low masses, there is most probably a turn-over. A very nice, although long, review on the shape of the IMF is written by Nate Bastian recently:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.6512

What determines the shape of the IMF of course is hidden in the, for now rather obscure, physics and chemistry going on deep inside the cores of molecular clouds, where the actual star formation takes place.

I think a 3 or 4 page essay on the shape of the IMF could be very interesting, but explaining why it is a power law seems a little out of reach, I am afraid...