Studying the Effects of the Initial Mass Function and Metallicity on the Star Formation Rates of Star-forming Regions

This research presents an investigation into the effects of metallicity and the initial mass function (IMF) on the star formation rates (SFRs) of star forming regions. Studies of SFRs at different eras in the universe help to understand galaxy formation and evolution and how stellar populations change over time. Photometry observations from the UH 2.2m telescope located on Mauna Kea and the Supernova Integrated Field Spectrograph (SNIFS) instrument provided the emission line data for the project. After determining the metallicity, the data was used to obtain estimates of SFRs. The IMF is another fundamental property of galaxy evolution and star formation. Determining the origin of the IMF and the sensitivity of SFRs to the IMF helps to develop theories of stellar population evolution. This paper looks at how the IMF contributes to SFRs by calculating the contribution of ionizing photons per spectral type and attempting to compare and correlate the theoretical calculations with observations.