Athena Stacy

The first stars: formation of binaries and small multiple systems

We investigate the formation of metal-free, Population III (Pop III), stars within a minihalo at z ≃ 20 with a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation, starting from cosmological initial conditions. Employing a hierarchical, zoom-in procedure, we achieve sufficient numerical resolution to follow the collapsing gas in the centre of the minihalo up to number densities of 10 12 cm -3 . This allows us to study the protostellar accretion on to the initial hydrostatic core, which we represent as a growing sink particle, in improved physical detail. The accretion process, and in particular its termination, governs the final masses that were reached by the first stars. The primordial initial mass function, in turn, played an important role in determining to what extent the first stars drove early cosmic evolution. We continue our simulation for 5000 yr after the first sink particle has formed. During this time period, a disc-like configuration is assembled around the first protostar. The disc is gravitationally unstable, develops a pronounced spiral structure and fragments into several other protostellar seeds. At the end of the simulation, a small multiple system has formed, dominated by a binary with masses ∼40 and ∼10 M ⊙ . If Pop III stars were to form typically in binaries or small multiples, the standard model of primordial star formation, where single, isolated stars are predicted to form in minihaloes, would have to be modified. This would have crucial consequences for the observational signature of the first stars, such as their nucleosynthetic pattern, and the gravitational wave emission from possible Pop III black hole binaries.

The First Stars: Mass Growth Under Protostellar Feedback

We perform three-dimensional cosmological simulations to examine the growth of metal-free, Population III (Pop III) stars under radiative feedback. We begin our simulation at z = 100 and trace the evolution of gas and dark matter until the formation of the first minihalo. We then follow the collapse of the gas within the minihalo up to densities of n = 10 12 cm −3 , at which point we replace the high-density particles with a sink particle to represent the growing protostar. We model the effect of Lyman-Werner (LW) radiation emitted by the protostar, and employ a ray-tracing scheme to follow the growth of the surrounding H ii region over the next 5000 yr. We find that a disk assembles around the first protostar, and that radiative feedback will not prevent further fragmentation of the disk to form multiple Pop III stars. Ionization of neutral hydrogen and photodissociation of H2 by LW radiation leads to heating of the dense gas to several thousand Kelvin, and this warm region expands outward at the gas sound speed. Once the extent of this warm region becomes equivalent to the size of the disk, the disk mass declines while the accretion rate onto the protostars is reduced by an order of magnitude. This occurs when the largest sink has grown to � 20 M⊙ while the second sink has grown to � 7 M⊙, and we estimate the main sink will approach an asymptotic value of 30 M⊙ by the time it reaches the main sequence. Our simulation thus indicates that the most likely outcome is a massive Pop III binary. However, we simulate only one minihalo, and the statistical variation between minihaloes may be substantial. If Pop III stars were typically unable to grow to more than a few tens of solar masses, this would have important consequences for the occurence of pair-instability supernovae in the early Universe as well as the Pop III chemical signature in the oldest stars observable today.

Constraining the statistics of Population III binaries

We perform a cosmological simulation in order to model the growth and evolution of Population III (Pop III) stellar systems in a range of host minihalo environments. A Pop III multiple system forms in each of the ten minihaloes, and the overall mass function is top-heavy compared to the currently observed initial mass function in the Milky Way. Using a sink particle to represent each growing protostar, we examine the binary characteristics of the multiple systems, resolving orbits on scales as small as 20 AU. We find a binary fraction of approx. 36, with semi-major axes as large as 3000 AU. The distribution of orbital periods is slightly peaked at approx. < 900 yr, while the distribution of mass ratios is relatively flat. Of all sink particles formed within the ten minihaloes, approx. 50 are lost to mergers with larger sinks, and 50 of the remaining sinks are ejected from their star-forming disks. The large binary fraction may have important implications for Pop III evolution and nucleosynthesis, as well as the final fate of the first stars.

EFFECT OF STREAMING MOTION OF BARYONS RELATIVE TO DARK MATTER ON THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST STARS

We evaluate the effect of a supersonic relative velocity between the baryons and dark matter on the thermal and density evolution of the first gas clouds at z 50. Through a series of cosmological simulations, initialized at z i = 100 with a range of relative streaming velocities and minihalo formation redshifts, we find that the typical streaming velocities will have little effect on the gas evolution. Once the collapse begins, the subsequent evolution of the gas will be nearly indistinguishable from the case of no streaming, and star formation will still proceed in the same way, with no change in the characteristic Pop III stellar masses. Reionization is expected to be dominated by halo masses of 108 M ☉, for which the effect of streaming should be negligible.

PROBING PRE-GALACTIC METAL ENRICHMENT WITH HIGH-REDSHIFT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS

We explore high-redshift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) as promising tools to probe pre-galactic metal enrichment. We utilize the bright afterglow of a Population III (Pop III) GRB exploding in a primordial dwarf galaxy as a luminous background source, and calculate the strength of metal absorption lines that are imprinted by the first heavy elements in the intergalactic medium (IGM). To derive the GRB absorption line diagnostics, we use an existing highly-resolved simulation of the formation of a first galaxy which is characterized by the onset of atomic hydrogen cooling in a halo with virial temperature & 10 4 K. We explore the unusual circumburst environment inside the systems that hosted Pop III stars, modeling the density evolution with the self-similar solution for a champagne flow. For minihalos close to the cooling threshold, the circumburst density is roughly proportional to (1 + z) with values of about a few cm −3 . In more massive halos, corresponding to the first galaxies, the density may be larger, n & 100cm −3 . The resulting afterglow fluxes are weakly dependent on redshift at a fixed observed time, and may be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Very Large Array (VLA) in the near-IR and radio wavebands, respectively, out to redshift z & 20. We predict that the maximum of the afterglow emission shifts from near-IR to millimeter bands with peak fluxes from mJy to Jy at different observed times. The metal absorption line signature is expected to be detectable in the near future. GRBs are ideal tools for probing the metal enrichment in the early IGM, due to their high luminosities and featureless power-law spectra. The metals in the first galaxies produced by the first supernova (SN) explosions are likely to reside in low-ionization stages (C II, O I, Si II and Fe II). We show that if the afterglow can be observed sufficiently early, analysis of the metal lines may distinguish whether the first heavy elements were produced in a pair-instability supernova (PISN), or a core-collapse (Type II) SN, thus constraining the initial mass function of the first stars. Subject headings: cosmology: observations – cosmology: theory – galaxies: high-redshift – gamma rays: bursts – quasars: absorption lines

Building up the Population III initial mass function from cosmological initial conditions

We simulate the growth of a Population III stellar system, starting from cosmological initial conditions at z=100. We follow the formation of a minihalo and the subsequent collapse of its central gas to high densities, resolving scales as small as ~ 1 AU. Using sink particles to represent the growing protostars, we model the growth of the photodissociating and ionizing region around the first sink, continuing the simulation for ~ 5000 yr after initial protostar formation. Along with the first-forming sink, several tens of secondary sinks form before an ionization front develops around the most massive star. The resulting cluster has high rates of sink formation, ejections from the stellar disc, and sink mergers during the first ~ 2000 yr, before the onset of radiative feedback. By this time a warm ~ 5000 K phase of neutral gas has expanded to roughly the disc radius of 2000 AU, slowing mass flow onto the disc and sinks. By 5000 yr the most massive star grows to 20 M_sol, while the total stellar mass approaches 75 M_sol. Out of the ~ 40 sinks, approximately 30 are low-mass (M_* < 1 M_sol), and if the simulation had resolved smaller scales an even greater number of sinks might have formed. Thus, protostellar radiative feedback is insufficient to prevent rapid disc fragmentation and the formation of a high-member Pop III cluster before an ionization front emerges. Throughout the simulation, the majority of stellar mass is contained within the most massive stars, further implying that the Pop III initial mass function is top-heavy.

THE FIRST STARS: A LOW-MASS FORMATION MODE

We perform numerical simulations of the growth of a Population III stellar system under photodissociating feedback. We start from cosmological initial conditions at z = 100, self-consistently following the formation of a minihalo at z = 15 and the subsequent collapse of its central gas to high densities. The simulations resolve scales as small as ∼1 AU, corresponding to gas densities of 10{sup 16} cm{sup –3}. Using sink particles to represent the growing protostars, we evolve the stellar system for the next 5000 yr. We find that this emerging stellar group accretes at an unusually low rate compared with minihalos which form at earlier times (z = 20-30), or with lower baryonic angular momentum. The stars in this unusual system will likely reach masses ranging from <1 M {sub ☉} to ∼5 M {sub ☉} by the end of their main-sequence lifetimes, placing them in the mass range for which stars will undergo an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase. Based upon the simulation, we predict the rare existence of Population III stars that have survived to the present day and have been enriched by mass overflow from a previous AGB companion.

Impact of cosmic rays on Population III star formation

We explore the implications of a possible cosmic-ray (CR) background generated during the first supernova explosions that end the brief lives of massive Population III stars. We show that such a CR background could have significantly influenced the cooling and collapse of primordial gas clouds in minihaloes around redshifts of z ∼15-20, provided the CR flux was sufficient to yield an ionization rate greater than about 10- 19 s -1 near the centre of the minihalo. The presence of CRs with energies ≤10 7 eV would indirectly enhance the molecular cooling in these regions, and we estimate that the resulting lower temperatures in these minihaloes would yield a characteristic stellar mass as low as ∼10M⊙. CRs have a less-pronounced effect on the cooling and collapse of primordial gas clouds inside more massive dark matter haloes with virial masses (≥10 8 M ⊙ at the later stages of cosmological structure formation around z ∼ 10-15. In these clouds, even without CR flux the molecular abundance is already sufficient to allow cooling to the floor set by the temperature of the cosmic microwave background.

Rotation and internal structure of Population III protostars

We analyze the cosmological simulations performed in the recent work of Greif et al. (2012), which followed the early growth and merger history of Pop III stars while resolving scales as small as 0.05 R⊙. This is the first set of cosmological simulations to self-consistently resolve the rotation and internal structure of Pop III protostars. We find that Pop III stars form under significant rotational support which is maintained for the duration of the simulations. The protostellar surfaces spin from �50% to nearly 100% of Keplerian rotational velocity. These rotation rates persist after experiencing multiple stellar merger events. In the brief time period simulated (� 10 yr), the protostars show little indication of convective instability, and their properties furthermore show little correlation with the properties of their host minihaloes. If Pop III protostars within this range of environments generally form with high degrees of rotational support, and if this rotational support is maintained for a sufficientamount of time, this has a number of crucial implications for Pop III evolution and nucleosynthesis, as well as the possibility for Pop III pair-instability supernovae, and the question of whether the first stars produced gamma-ray bursts.

Gravitational Waves from the Remnants of the First Stars

Gravitational waves (GWs) provide a revolutionary tool to investigate yet unobserved astrophysical objects. Especially the first stars, which are believed to be more massive than present-day stars, might be indirectly observable via the merger of their compact remnants. We develop a self-consistent, cosmologically representative, semi-analytical model to simulate the formation of the first stars. By extrapolating binary stellar-evolution models at 10% solar metallicity to metal-free stars, we track the individual systems until the coalescence of the compact remnants. We estimate the contribution of primordial stars to the merger rate density and to the detection rate of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO). Owing to their higher masses, the remnants of primordial stars produce strong GW signals, even if their contribution in number is relatively small. We find a probability of