The IMF of the Arches and the Field of the 30 Doradus Superassociation (Fernando Selman, ESO-Chile)

The  Stellar  Initial Mass Function (SIMF)  is  one  of  the most important  quantities  upon which many  observable characteristics of astrophysical objects depend. A brief survey of our current understanding of the stellar initial mass function will be given. An emphasis will be placed on whether or not the SIMF is universal and on the impact of such a finding. I will then present our recent results regarding the SIMF of the field of the 30 Doradus superassociation and of the Arches cluster, two of the emblematic cases that had been presented in the past to suppor the idea of a non-universal SIMF. I will  end up discussing the old idea that the field IMF can not be the same as that of clusters, an idea that has been reborn by Weidner and Kroupa with a surprising new twist.