Related papers: The First Galaxies: Signatures of the Initial Star…
The first population III stars are predicted to form in minihalos at a redshift of approximately 10-30. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), tentatively scheduled for launch in 2018, will probably be able to detect some of the first…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental property of star formation, offering key insight into the physics driving the process as well as informing our understanding of stellar populations, their by-products, and their…
The extent to which star formation varies in galaxies with low masses, low metallicities, and high star formation rate surface densities is not well-constrained. To gain insight into star formation under these physical conditions, this…
JWST has now made it possible to probe the rest-frame optical line emission of high-redshift galaxies extending to z~9, and potentially beyond. To aid in the interpretation of these emerging constraints, in this work we explore predictions…
Observing the first generation of Population III (Pop III) stars is one of the most demanding challenges in astronomy. Indeed, Pop III stars are expected to predominantly form within faint minihalos at early times with a top-heavy initial…
We implemented Population III (Pop. III) star formation in mini-halos within the MERAXES semi-analytic galaxy formation and reionisation model, run on top of a N-body simulation with $L = 10 h^{-1}$ cMpc with 2048$^3$ particles resolving…
The character of the first galaxies at redshifts z > 10 strongly depends on their level of pre-enrichment, which is in turn determined by the rate of primordial star formation prior to their assembly. In order for the first galaxies to…
Theoretical arguments and indirect observational evidence suggest that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) may evolve with time, such that it is more weighted toward high mass stars at higher redshift. Here we test this idea by…
The emergence of the first, so-called Population III (Pop III), stars shaped early cosmic history in ways that crucially depends on their initial mass function (IMF). However, because of the absence of direct observational constraints, the…
Next generation observatories will enable us to study the first billion years of our Universe in unprecedented detail. Foremost among these are 21-cm interferometry with the HERA and the SKA, and high-$z$ galaxy observations with the James…
We use the ZFIRE survey (http://zfire.swinburne.edu.au) to investigate the high mass slope of the initial mass function (IMF) for a mass-complete (log10(M$_*$/M$_\odot$)~9.3) sample of 102 star-forming galaxies at z~2 using their H$\alpha$…
It has been shown recently that the dynamical V-band mass-to-light ratios of compact stellar systems with masses from 10^6 to 10^8 Solar masses are not consistent with the predictions from simple stellar population (SSP) models. Top-heavy…
Recent estimates point to abundances of z > 4 sub-millimeter (sub-mm) galaxies far above model predictions. The matter is still debated. According to some analyses the excess may be substantially lower than initially thought and perhaps…
We study the observational consequences of several unknown properties of Population III (Pop III) stars using large-scale cosmological simulations that include a subgrid model to track the unresolved mixing of pollutants. Varying the value…
We conduct a comprehensive investigation of the detectability of the first stars and their enrichment signatures in galaxy clusters. We show that the mean metallicity of outflows from objects containing these Population III (PopIII) stars…
High-redshift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), putative counterparts of massive, low-metallicity Population III (Pop III) stars, are a promising probe of the first stars. We assess the detectability of these Pop III GRBs using a metallicity-based…
Population III stars, the first generation of stars formed from primordial Big Bang material with a top-heavy IMF, should contribute substantially to the Universe reionization and they are crucial for understanding the early metal…
The nature of the first Pop III stars is still a mystery and the energy distribution of the first supernovae is completely unexplored. For the first time we account simultaneously for the unknown initial mass function (IMF), stellar mixing,…
Identifying stars formed in pristine environments (Pop III) within the first billion years is vital to uncovering the earliest growth and chemical evolution of galaxies. Pop III galaxies, however, are typically expected to be too faint and…
The first generations of stars ionised and enriched their host galaxies and seeded the growth of massive black holes. Models often assume that Pop III stellar masses in different minihaloes are stochastic realisations of a single universal…