Two prototypical subregions of W43-MM2&MM3, MM2 (red line), and MM10 (blue line), compared with Aquila (green line). Panel a: η-PDF histograms, whose tails (colored segments) are fitted with power laws. Solid and dotted green lines correspond to the observed and extrapolated column density ranges from Könyves et al. (2015). While the η-PDF of the MM2 subregion displays a flat power-law tail, those of MM10 and Aquila are much steeper. Panel b: cumulative CMF histograms, whose high-mass ends are represented by power laws (colored segments) and their 1σ- global uncertainties (colored areas; see the definition in Sect. 3.1.2). While the MM2 subregion exhibits a top-heavy CMF, MM10 and Aquila have steeper (CMF high-mass ends, with power-law indices close to the Salpeter slope (dashed magenta line).