Constraining the Stellar Mass Function in the Galactic Center via Mass Loss from Stellar Collisions

Figure 9

Mass loss rates as a function of Galactic radius due to direct collisions for various parameters of 𝑀_min, 𝑀_max, and 𝛼. The parameter 𝑀_min varies in each panel from bottom to top, and 𝑀_max varies from left to right. The power law slope, 𝛼, varies within each panel from 1.00 (top line) to 2.5 (bottom line) in equal increments of 0.188. The dashed line corresponds to a Salpeter-like mass function values (𝑀_min=0.5𝑀_⊙, 𝑀_max=125𝑀_⊙, 𝛼=2.29). The arrows indicate the range in the diffuse X-ray observations (𝑟_gal<1.5^) which we use to constrain the PDMF (see Section 5).