Related papers: Extreme Primordial Star Formation Enabled by High …
We investigate the impact of an early population of massive stars on their surroundings. Dissociation of molecular hydrogen by strong UV emission from such stars is expected to produce a global transition in the cooling mechanism of…
The primordial gas in the earliest dark matter halos, collapsing at redshifts around z=20, with masses M_halo=10^6 M_sun, and virial temperatures T_vir<10^4K, relied on the presence of molecules for cooling. Several theoretical studies have…
The first billion years in the evolution of the Universe mark the formation of the first stars, black holes and galaxies. The radiation from the first galaxies plays an important role in determining the final state of primordial gas…
We model gas cooling in high-resolution N-body simulations in order to investigate the formation of the first generation of stars. We follow a region of a LCDM universe especially selected to contain a rich cluster by the present day. The…
The collapse of supermassive primordial stars in hot, atomically-cooled halos may have given birth to the first quasars at $z \sim$ 15 - 20. Recent numerical simulations of these rapidly accreting stars reveal that they are cool, red…
The Direct Collapse Black Hole (DCBH) scenario provides a solution for forming the massive black holes powering bright quasars observed in the early Universe. A prerequisite for forming a DCBH is that the formation of (much less massive)…
Population III (pop III) stars were born in halos characterised by a pristine gas composition. In such a halo, once the gas density reaches n$_{\mathrm{H}} \sim$ 1 cm$^{-3}$, molecular cooling leads to the collapse of the gas and the birth…
We utilize cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to study the formation of Population III (Pop III) stars in dark matter halos exposed to strong ionizing radiation. We simulate the formation of three halos subjected to a wide range of…
The leading contenders for the seeds of $z > 6$ quasars are direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) forming in atomically-cooled halos at $z \sim$ 20. However, the Lyman-Werner (LW) UV background required to form DCBHs of 10$^5$ \Ms\ are…
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…
The first generation of stars, often called Population III (or Pop III), form from metal-free primordial gas at redshifts 30 and below. They dominate the cosmic star formation history until redshifts 15 to 20, at which point the formation…
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…
We investigate the evolution of the primordial gas surrounding the first massive black holes formed by the collapse of Population III stars at redshifts z > 20. Carrying out three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations using GADGET, we…
We use cosmological hydrodynamic simulations with unprecedented resolution to study the formation of primordial stars in an ionized gas at high redshifts. Our approach includes all the relevant atomic and molecular physics to follow the…
Primordial gas in protogalactic dark matter (DM) halos with virial temperatures Tvir > 10^4 K begins to cool and condense via atomic hydrogen. Provided this gas is irradiated by a strong ultraviolet (UV) flux and remains free of H2 and…
The early stage in the formation of a galaxy inevitably involves a spatially extended distribution of infalling, cold gas. If a central luminous quasar turned on during this phase, it would result in significant extended Lyman alpha…
The first bound star-forming systems in the universe are predicted to form at redshifts of about 30 and to have masses of the order of 10^6 M_sun. Although their sizes and masses are similar to those of present star-forming regions, their…
We summarize cm through submm observations of the host galaxies of z ~ 6 quasars. These observations reveal the cool molecular gas (the fuel for star formation), the warm dust (heated by star formation), the fine structure line emission…
Population III (or Pop. III) stars, the first stellar generation built up from metal-free primordial gas, first started to form at redshifts z ~ 30. They formed primarily in small dark matter halos with masses of a few million solar masses.…
Supermassive primordial stars forming in atomically-cooled halos at $z \sim15-20$ are currently thought to be the progenitors of the earliest quasars in the Universe. In this picture, the star evolves under accretion rates of $0.1 - 1$…