Related papers: Star Formation at Zero and Very Low Metallicities
The hypothesis that massive stars form by accretion can be investigated by simple analytical calculations that describe the effect that the formation of a massive star has on its own accretion flow. Within a simple accretion model that…
With the first metal enrichment by Population (Pop) III supernovae (SNe), the formation of the first metal-enriched, Pop II stars becomes possible. In turn, Pop III star formation and early metal enrichment are slowed by the high energy…
The theory for the formation of the first population of stars (Pop III) predicts an initial mass function (IMF) dominated by high-mass stars, in contrast to the present-day IMF, which tends to yield mostly stars with masses less than 1…
We study the influence of low levels of metal enrichment on the cooling and collapse of ionized gas in small protogalactic halos using three-dimensional, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. Our initial conditions represent…
The formation of stars from gas drives the evolution of galaxies. Yet, it remains one of the hardest processes to understand when trying to connect observations of stellar and galaxy populations to models of large scale structure formation.…
We study the effect of starlight from the first stars on the ability of other minihaloes in their neighborhood to form additional stars. The question of what the dynamical consequences were for these target minihaloes, of their exposure to…
In these lecture notes we review the current knowledge about the formation of the first luminous objects. We start from the cosmological context of hierarchical models of structure formation, and discuss the main physical processes which…
We discuss the evolutionary properties of primordial massive and very massive stars, supposed to have formed from metal-free gas. Stellar models are presented over a large range of initial masses (8 Msun <= Mi <= 1000 Msun), covering the…
Population III (Pop III) stars are the first stars in the Universe, forming from pristine, metal-free gas and marking the end of the cosmic dark ages. Their formation rate is expected to sharply decline after redshift $z \approx 15$ due to…
Dark Stars are the very first phase of stellar evolution in the history of the universe: the first stars to form (typically at redshifts $z \sim 10-50$) are powered by heating from dark matter (DM) annihilation instead of fusion (if the DM…
The last decade has witnessed significant advances in our observational understanding of the earliest stages of low-mass star formation. The advent of sensitive receivers on large radio telescopes such as the JCMT and IRAM 30m MRT has led…
The first stars fundamentally transformed the early universe by emitting the first light and by producing the first heavy elements. These effects were predetermined by the mass distribution of the first stars, which is thought to have been…
Star formation generally proceeds inside-out, with overdense regions inside protostellar cores collapsing rapidly and progressively less dense regions following later. Consequently, a small protostar will form early in the evolution of a…
The first stars in the universe ionized the ambient primordial gas through various feedback processes. "Second-generation" primordial stars potentially form from this disturbed gas after its recombination. In this Letter, we study the late…
We investigate the properties of the first galaxies at z > 10 with highly resolved numerical simulations, starting from cosmological initial conditions and taking into account all relevant primordial chemistry and cooling. A first galaxy is…
Star formation lies at the center of a web of processes that drive cosmic evolution: generation of radiant energy, synthesis of elements, formation of planets, and development of life. Decades of observations have yielded a variety of…
In this chapter, we will cover how stars form from the stellar nurseries that are giant molecular clouds. We will first review the physical processes that compete to regulate star formation. We then review star formation in turbulent,…
Over the past two decades, an avalanche of data from multiwavelength imaging and spectroscopic surveys has revolutionized our view of galaxy formation and evolution. Here we review the range of complementary techniques and theoretical tools…
We investigate the process of metal-free star formation in the first galaxies with a high-resolution cosmological simulation. We consider the cosmologically motivated scenario in which a strong molecule-destroying Lyman-Werner (LW)…
The theory of the formation of the first stars in the Universe, the so-called Population III (Pop III), has until now largely neglected the impact of magnetic fields. Complementing a series of recent studies of the magneto-hydrodynamic…