The initial mass function in HII galaxies

Abstract

Observation of a large sample of HII galaxies shows that the emission line ratios of the youngest objects change systematically with gaseous oxygen abundance, which was interpreted as resulting from changes in the initial mass function (IMF) of the ionizing cluster. Comparison with cluster/nebula models shows that both the slope and the upper mass limit of the cluster IMF vary with abundance. In HII galaxies with oxygen abundance about 1/10 that of Orion, the IMF for massive stars must have a slope which is about a factor of 2 smaller than in the Solar Neighborhood.