Issue |
A&A
Volume 443, Number 3, December I 2005
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 851 - 861 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20042173 | |
Published online | 15 November 2005 |
The IMF of the field population of 30 Doradus
European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Santiago, Chile e-mail: [fselman;jmelnick]@eso.org
Received:
14
October
2004
Accepted:
7
June
2005
The star-formation history and IMF of the field population of the 30 Doradus super-association is determined using Wide Field Imager photometry. The cluster NGC 2070
and the OB association LH104 are also studied and used for comparison.
The star-formation history of the 30 Doradus
super-association appears to be characterized
by a large increase in star-formation activity
10 Myr to 20 Myr ago. This seems to be the case
across the whole eastern half of the LMC as
demonstrated by the ages of stellar populations
as far away as 30 Doradus and
Shapley's Constellation III.
Star-formation appears to be occurring at a constant
rate in the field and in loose associations,
and in bursts in the clusters.
The field IMF is found to have almost the exact Salpeter slope in the range
, at odds
with previous claims. We find that, for objects with more complex star-formation
histories, Be stars and selective incompleteness strongly affect
the determination of the IMF for
, naturally explaining
the observed deviation of the high mass IMF slope from the Salpeter value.
The present work supports the idea of a universal IMF.
Key words: stars: formation / galaxies: stellar content / galaxies: Magellanic Clouds / galaxies: star clusters / techniques: photometric / methods: statistical
© ESO, 2005
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