The statistical approach for derivation of the clump mass function ( ClMF ) developed by Donkov , Veltchev & Klessen is put to observational test through comparison with mass distributions of clumps from molecular emission and dust continuum maps of Galactic cloud complexes , obtained by various authors .
The results indicate gravitational boundedness of the dominant clump population , with or without taking into account the contribution of their thermal and magnetic energy .
The ClMF can be presented by combination of two power-law functions separated by a characteristic mass from about ten to hundreds solar masses .
The slope of the intermediate-mass ClMF is shallow and nearly constant ( -0.25 \gtrsim \Gamma _ { IM } \gtrsim - 0.55 ) while the high-mass part is fitted by models that imply gravitationally unstable clumps and exhibit slopes in a broader range ( -0.9 \gtrsim \Gamma _ { IM } \gtrsim - 1.6 ) , centered at the value of the stellar initial mass function ( \Gamma _ { HM } \gtreqless - 1.3 ) .