Synthetic core mass function (CMF) derived from simulated source extractions (blue histogram) compared to the input mass function (dN/dlogM ∝ M^-0.7) of a population of 5622 model cores (red curve) constructed as described in Appendix B.1. The estimated 90% completeness level (in observed core mass) is indicated by the vertical dashed line at 0.2 M_⊙. The black solid line shows a power-law fit to the derived CMF above the 0.2 M_⊙ completeness level; it is in excellent agreement with the input core mass function. The drop of the synthetic CMF below the input CMF at the high-mass end is due to the fact that the derived core masses tend to underestimate the true core masses by ~ 20% on average (see Fig. B.2a).