Abstract
SIGNIFICANT progress has been made in recent years in the imaging of star-forming regions and in the theoretical modelling of the process of star formation1, but the physical process that determines the mass spectrum of stars remains unclear. Here we propose a model in which the protostar phase ends when the protostar embedded in a condensing core of molecular gas interacts with another protostar or star, and is ejected from its core. Such interactions must be important if stars preferentially form in dense but ultimately unbound protoclusters. In a simple model in which protostars accrete at a constant rate, the final distribution of stellar masses asymptotically approaches a simple universal distribution which is very similar to the observed mass function of stars. The general form of the mass function in this model is determined by a competition between accretion and collision rates, which provides a qualitative explanation for the differences in star formation in different environments (such as the galactic disk, globular clusters and the galactic halo).
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Podsiadlowski, P., Price, N. Star formation and the origin of stellar masses. Nature 359, 305–307 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/359305a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/359305a0
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