Related papers: Population III by Popular Demand - Progress and Pr…
Population III stars were the first generation of stars, formed in minihalos of roughly primordial element abundances, and therefore metal-free. They are thought to have formed at the cores of dense dark matter clouds. Interactions between…
Paramount among the processes that ended the cosmic `dark ages' must have been the formation of the first generation of stars (the so-called Population III). We summarize recent progress in constraining its nature, and we discuss the basic…
Ancient, long-lived stars remain present in all components of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Born a few hundred million after the Big Bang and during a time that marked the very beginning of the chemical evolution, these stars display very…
Hydrodynamical cosmological simulations predict that the metal-free Population III (Pop III) stars were likely very massive and, therefore, short-lived. However, they left their chemical imprint on their descendants, which can also have…
A PopIII/Pop II transition from massive to normal stars is predicted to occur when the metallicity of the star forming gas crosses the critical range Z_cr = 10^(-5 +/- 1) Z_sun. To investigate the cosmic implications of such process we use…
It is uncertain whether or not low-mass Population III stars ever existed. While limits on the number density of Population III stars with $M_{\ast} \approx 0.8~M_{\odot}$ have been derived using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data, little…
We probe the astrophysical gravitational-wave background resulting from compact binary coalescences, focusing on Population III binary black holes. We exploit results of state-of-the-art simulations on the evolution of Population I-II and…
Population III star formation during the dark ages shifted from minihalos (~10^6 Msun) cooled via molecular hydrogen to more massive halos (~10^8 Msun) cooled via Ly-alpha as Lyman-Werner backgrounds progressively quenched molecular…
We review recent theoretical results on the formation of the first stars in the universe, and emphasize related open questions. In particular, we discuss the initial conditions for Population III star formation, as given by variants of the…
The first stars were key drivers of early cosmic evolution. We review the main physical elements of the current consensus view, positing that the first stars were predominantly very massive. We continue with a discussion of important open…
Using 6 Milky Way analogues with two different numerical resolutions from the Auriga simulation, we investigate the total mass, spatial distribution and kinematics of the Population III star relics in the Milky Way analogues at $z=0$. These…
In this review I will describe a number of recent advances in extragalactic astronomy. First of all I will describe our current best estimates of the star formation history of the Universe. Then I will describe measurements of local…
Recent numerical simulations have suggested the probability of a fraction of the primordial stars being ejected from the cluster of their origin. We explore the possibility that some of these can remain on the main sequence until the…
The cosmic dark ages are the mysterious epoch during which the pristine gas began to condense and ultimately form the first stars. Although these beginnings have long been a topic of theoretical interest, technology has only recently…
Recent data from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that there are realistic prospects for detecting the earliest generation of stars at redshift ~20. These metal-poor, gaseous Population III (Pop III) stars are likely in the mass range…
Recent numerical simulations have suggested the probability of a fraction of the primordial stars to be ejected from the cluster of their origin. We explore the possibility that some of these can remain on the main sequence till the present…
Recent numerical studies argue that low-mass stars can be formed even at zero-metallicity environment. These low-mass Population III(Pop.~III) stars are thought to be still shining and able to be observed in the Local Universe. Most…
Cosmological simulations of Population (Pop) III star formation suggest that the primordial initial mass function may have extended to sub-solar masses. If Pop III stars with masses < 0.8 M_Sun did form, then they should still be present in…
A small fraction of the atomic-cooling halos assembling at z<15 may form out of minihalos that never experienced any prior star formation, and could in principle host small galaxies of chemically unenriched stars. Since the prospects of…
The era of the universe's first (Population III) stars is essentially unconstrained by observation. Ultra-luminous and massive stars from this time altered the chemistry of the cosmos, provided the radiative scaffolding to support the…