Letter to the Editor

Inversely synthesizing the core mass function of high-mass star-forming regions from the canonical initial mass function

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
² Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik (HISKP), Universität Bonn, Nussallee 14–16, 53115 Bonn, Germany
³ Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Astronomical Institute, V Holešovičkách 2, CZ-180 00 Praha 8, Czech Republic
⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

^⋆ Corresponding authors; jwzhou@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de, pkroupa@uni-bonn.de, dib@mpia.de

Received: 8 November 2024
Accepted: 1 March 2025

Abstract

Many studies have revealed that the core mass function (CMF) in high-mass star-forming regions is top-heavy. In this work, we start from the canonical initial mass function (IMF) to inversely synthesize the observed CMFs of high-mass star formation regions, taking into account variations in multiplicity and mass conversion efficiency from core to star (ϵ_core). To match the observed CMFs, cores of different masses should have varying ϵ_core, with ϵ_core increasing as the core mass decreases. However, the multiplicity fraction does not affect the synthesized CMFs. To accurately fit the high-mass end of the CMF, it is essential to determine whether the CMF shows a slope transition from the low-mass end to the high-mass one. If the CMF truly undergoes a slope transition but observational biases obscure it, leading to a combined fit with a shallower slope, this could artificially create a top-heavy CMF.