• DOI:10.1086/428396
Corpus ID: 7280299

Statistical confirmation of a stellar upper mass limit

@article{Clarke2005StatisticalCO,
  title={Statistical confirmation of a stellar upper mass limit},
  author={Melanie J. Clarke},
  journal={The Astrophysical Journal},
  year={2005},
  volume={620}
}

Melanie J. Clarke

Published 2005

Physics

The Astrophysical Journal

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We derive the expectation value for the maximum stellar mass (mmax) in an ensemble of N stars, as a function of the initial mass function (IMF) upper mass cutoff (mup) and N. We statistically demonstrate that the upper IMF of the local massive star census observed thus far in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds clearly exhibits a universal upper mass cutoff around 120-200 M☉ for a Salpeter IMF, although the result is more ambiguous for a steeper IMF.