Related papers: Detectability of the First Cosmic Explosions
Recently, Nakajima et al. (2025) presented James Webb Space Telescope observations of the $z=6.6$ Population III (Pop III) candidate LAP1-B, which is gravitationally lensed by galaxy cluster MACS J0416. We argue that this is the first…
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 possible existence of primordial black holes in the stellar mass window has received considerable attention because their mergers may contribute to current and future gravitational-wave detections. Primordial black hole mergers,…
Current observations are about to open up a direct window into the final frontier of cosmology: the first billion years in cosmic history when the first stars and galaxies formed. Even before the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, it…
We discuss some aspects concerning the formation and the impact of the first luminous structures in the universe (PopIIIs), with particular emphasis on their feedback effects on subsequent galaxy formation. We argue that supernovae in these…
The search for metal-free stars has so far been unsuccessful, proving that if there are surviving stars from the first generation, they are rare, they have been polluted, or we have been looking in the wrong place. To predict the likely…
Observations of the explosions of Population III (Pop III) stars have the potential to teach us much about the formation and evolution of these zero-metallicity objects. To realize this potential, we must tie observed emission to an…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of extragalactic stellar populations. Indeed, in many systems, bright PNe are the only individual objects identifiable from the ground, and, even more often, they…
Even after decades of usage as an extragalactic standard candle, the universal bright end of the planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) still lacks a solid theoretical explanation. Until now, models have modeled planetary nebulae (PNe)…
Pristine stars with masses between ~140 and 260 M_sun are theoretically predicted to die as pair-instability supernovae. These very massive progenitors could come from Pop III stars in the early universe. We model the light curves and…
To understand the chemical evolution of the Galaxy, we need to understand the contribution of PNe in the 3He abundance. 3He abundances have been detected only in a couple of PNe, their abundances are consistent with the standard models, in…
Extragalactic planetary nebulae (PNe) are detectable through relatively strong nebulous [OIII] emission and act as direct probes into the local stellar population. Because they have an apparently universal invariant magnitude cut-off, PNe…
Stripped-envelope supernovae (SESNe) mark the deaths of massive stars without hydrogen-rich envelopes. Most SESNe likely originate from binary systems where a companion stripped the progenitor of its envelope. Years of HST imaging of nearby…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are ideal probes of the epoch of the first stars and galaxies. We review the recent theoretical understanding of the formation and evolution of the first (so-called Population III) stars, in light of their viability…
How and when did the first generation of stars form at the end of the cosmic dark ages? Quite generically, within variants of the cold dark matter model of cosmological structure formation, the first sources of light are expected to form in…
Pair-instability supernovae (PISNe) are explosions of very massive stars that may have played a critical role in the chemical evolution and reionization of the early Universe. In order to quantify their roles, it is required to know the…
We investigate the effects of Population III (Pop III) stars and their remnants on the cosmological 21-cm global signal. By combining a semi-analytic model of Pop III star formation with a global 21-cm simulation code, we investigate how…
The quest to find the first stars has driven astronomers across cosmic time, from hopes to identify their signatures in their heyday at cosmic dawn to deep searches for their remnants in our local neighborhood. Such work crucially relies on…
From studying the cosmic microwave background, we know our Universe started out very simple. It was by and large homogeneous and isotropic, with small fluctuations that can be described by linear perturbation theory. In stark contrast, the…
Recent theory predicts that a first star is born with a massive initial mass of $\gtrsim$ 100 $M_\odot$. Pair instability supernova (PISN) is a common fate for such a massive star. Our final goal is to prove the existence of PISN and thus…