Related papers: Extreme Primordial Star Formation Enabled by High …
Primordial stars formed in the early universe are thought to be hosted by compact dark matter (DM) halos. If DM consists of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), such stars may be powered by DM annihilation during the early phases…
Understanding the formation of the first stars is one of the frontier topics in modern astrophysics and cosmology. Their emergence signaled the end of the cosmic dark ages, a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, leading to a…
The recent detection of the sky-averaged 21-cm cosmological signal indicates a stronger absorption than the maximum allowed value based on the standard model. One explanation for the required colder primordial gas is the energy transfer…
We show that the winds identified with high-redshift low-mass galaxies may strongly affect the formation of stars in more massive galaxies that form later. With 3D realizations of a simple linear growth model we track gas shocking, metal…
Thermal and chemical evolution of primordial gas clouds irradiated with far-ultraviolet (FUV; < 13.6 eV) radiation is investigated. In clouds irradiated by intense FUV radiation, sufficient hydrogen molecules to be important for cooling are…
We consider a model for quasar formation in which massive black holes are formed and fuelled largely by the accretion of hot gas during the process of galaxy formation. In standard hierarchical collapse models, objects about the size of…
We revisit previous suggestions that the heating provided by the winds of dying low-mass stars plays an important role in preventing star formation in quiescent galaxies. At the end of their asymptotic giant branch phase, intermediate and…
We report results from numerical simulations of star formation in the early universe that focus on gas at very high densities and very low metallicities. We argue that the gas in the central regions of protogalactic halos will fragment as…
We present the first 3D simulations to include the effects of dark matter annihilation feedback during the collapse of primordial mini-halos. We begin our simulations from cosmological initial conditions and account for dark matter…
We perform a set of cosmological simulations of early structure formation with incorporating baryonic streaming motions. We present a case where a significantly elongated gas cloud with $\sim\!10^4\,$solar masses (${\rm M_\odot}$) is formed…
There has been considerable theoretical debate over whether photoionization and supernova feedback from the first Population III stars facilitate or suppress the formation of the next generation of stars. We present results from an Eulerian…
X-ray emission from hot (T = 10^7 K) interstellar gas in massive elliptical galaxies indicates that 10^{10} M_sun has cooled over a Hubble time, but optical and radio evidence for this cold gas is lacking. We provide detailed theoretical…
In typical astrophysical environments, the abundance of heavy elements ranges from 0.001 to 2 times the solar concentration. Lower abundances have been seen in select stars in the Milky Way's halo and in two quasar absorption systems at…
High resolution X-ray spectra reveal hidden cooling flows depositing cold gas at the centres of massive nearby early-type galaxies with little sign of normal star formation. Optical observations are revealing that a bottom-heavy Initial…
The presence of nine candidate galaxies at $z=17$ and $z=25$ discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope in relatively small sky areas, if confirmed, is virtually impossible to reconcile with the predictions of the current galaxy formation…
Radiative feedback from populations II stars played a vital role in early structure formation. Particularly, photons below the Lyman limit can escape the star forming regions and produce a background ultraviolet (UV) flux which consequently…
We consider the physical conditions under which supermassive black holes could have formed inside the first galaxies. Our SPH simulations indicate that metal-free galaxies with a virial temperature ~10^4 K and with suppressed H2 formation…
A fraction of the first generation of stars in the early Universe may be very massive ($\gtrsim 300~\mathrm{M_\odot}$) as they form in metal-free environments. Formation of black holes from these stars can be accompanied by supermassive…
We perform a large set of cosmological simulations of early structure formation and follow the formation and evolution of 1540 star-forming gas clouds to derive the mass distribution of primordial stars. The star formation in our…
Optically thin cooling gas at most temperatures above 30K will make condensations by pressure pushing material into cool dense regions. This works without gravity. Cooling condensations will flatten and become planar/similarity solutions.…