The initial mass function for massive stars in the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds
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Abstract
The present-day initial mass functions for a number of stars in the Galaxy and in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are determined. The data set includes O type stars, supergiants of all types, and less luminous B stars for a total of 5000 stars in this Galaxy and nearly 1300 stars in the LMC and 500 in the SMC. Evidence is presented that the data for the less luminous stars (less than -8 M/Bol) are incomplete in the Galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds. A simple estimate is applied to the incompleteness and an IMF is derived for the region of the Galaxy which has a slope of -2.4. THe IMFs for regions interior and exterior to the solar orbit have similar slopes. The IMFs for the outer region of the Galaxy and for the LMC and SMC are all consistent with the Miller-Scalo (1979) IMF for the solar neighborhood. No observational evidence was found that the slope of the massive IMF differs from the normal IMF for the solar neighborhood or that it varies with galactocentric distance.
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