ALBERT

Description: We present a simulation of the long-term evolution of a Population III supernova remnant in a cosmological minihalo. Employing passive Lagrangian tracer particles, we investigate how chemical stratification and anisotropy in the explosion can affect the abundances of the first low-mass, metal-enriched stars. We find that reverse shock heating can leave the inner mass shells at entropies too high to cool, leading to carbon enhancement in the recollapsing gas. This hydrodynamic selection effect could explain the observed incidence of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars at low metallicity. We further explore how anisotropic ejecta distributions, recently seen in direct numerical simulations of core-collapse explosions, may translate to abundances in metal-poor stars. We find that some of the observed scatter in the Population II abundance ratios can be explained by an incomplete mixing of supernova ejecta, even in the case of only one contributing enrichment event. We demonstrate that the customary hypothesis of fully mixed ejecta clearly fails if post-explosion hydrodynamics prefers the recycling of some nucleosynthetic products over others. Furthermore, to fully exploit the stellar-archaeological programme of constraining the Pop III initial mass function from the observed Pop II abundances, considering these hydrodynamical transport effects is crucial. We discuss applications to the rich chemical structure of ultrafaint dwarf satellite galaxies, to be probed in unprecedented detail with upcoming spectroscopic surveys.

Description: Gravitationally lensed galaxies with magnification μ  10–100 are routinely detected at high redshifts, but magnifications significantly higher than this are hampered by a combination of low probability and large source sizes. Magnifications of μ ~ 1000 may none the less be relevant in the case of intrinsically small, high-redshift objects with very high number densities. Here, we explore the prospects of detecting compact (10 pc), high-redshift ( z   7) Population III star clusters at such extreme magnifications in large-area surveys with planned telescopes like Euclid , Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope and Wide-field Imaging Surveyor for High-redshift ( WISH ). We find that the planned WISH 100 deg 2 ultradeep survey may be able to detect a small number of such objects, provided that the total stellar mass of these star clusters is 10 4 M . If candidates for such lensed Population III star clusters are found, follow-up spectroscopy of the surrounding nebula with the James Webb Space Telescope or ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes should be able to confirm the Population III nature of these objects. Multiband photometry of these objects with the James Webb Space Telescope also has the potential to confirm that the stellar initial mass function in these Population III star clusters is top-heavy, as supported by current simulations.

Description: We present the Cosmic Lyman α Transfer code, a massively parallel Monte Carlo radiative transfer code, to simulate Lyman α (Lyα) resonant scattering through neutral hydrogen as a probe of the first galaxies. We explore the interaction of centrally produced Lyα radiation with the host galactic environment. Lyα photons emitted from the luminous starburst region escape with characteristic features in the line profile depending on the density distribution, ionization structure, and bulk velocity fields. For example, anisotropic ionization exhibits a tall peak close to line centre with a skewed tail that drops off gradually. Idealized models of first galaxies explore the effect of mass, anisotropic H ii regions, and radiation pressure driven winds on Lyα observables. We employ mesh refinement to resolve critical structures. We also post-process an ab initio cosmological simulation and examine images captured at various distances within the 1 Mpc 3 comoving volume. Finally, we discuss the emergent spectra and surface brightness profiles of these objects in the context of high- z observations. The first galaxies will likely be observed through the red damping wing of the Lyα line. Observations will be biased towards galaxies with an intrinsic red peak located far from line centre that reside in extensive H ii super bubbles, which allows Hubble flow to sufficiently redshift photons away from line centre and facilitate transmission through the intergalactic medium. Even with gravitational lensing to boost the luminosity this preliminary work indicates that Lyα emission from stellar clusters within haloes of M vir  〈 10 9 M is generally too faint to be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope .

Description: To constrain the properties of the first stars with the chemical abundance patterns observed in metal-poor stars, one must identify any non-trivial effects that the hydrodynamics of metal dispersal can imprint on the abundances. We use realistic cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to quantify the distribution of metals resulting from one Population III supernova and from a small number of such supernovae exploding in close succession. Overall, supernova ejecta are highly inhomogeneously dispersed throughout the simulations. When the supernova bubbles collapse, quasi-virialized metal-enriched clouds, fed by fallback from the bubbles and by streaming of metal-free gas from the cosmic web, grow in the centres of the dark matter haloes. Partial turbulent homogenization on scales resolved in the simulation is observed only in the densest clouds where the vortical time-scales are short enough to ensure true homogenization on subgrid scales. However, the abundances in the clouds differ from the gross yields of the supernovae. Continuing the simulations until the cloud have gone into gravitational collapse, we predict that the abundances in second-generation stars will be deficient in the innermost mass shells of the supernova (if only one has exploded) or in the ejecta of the latest supernovae (when multiple have exploded). This indicates that hydrodynamics gives rise to biases complicating the identification of nucleosynthetic sources in the chemical abundance spaces of the surviving stars.

Description: To constrain the properties of the first stars with the chemical abundance patterns observed in metal-poor stars, one must identify any non-trivial effects that the hydrodynamics of metal dispersal can imprint on the abundances. We use realistic cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to quantify the distribution of metals resulting from one Population III supernova and from a small number of such supernovae exploding in close succession. Overall, supernova ejecta are highly inhomogeneously dispersed throughout the simulations. When the supernova bubbles collapse, quasi-virialized metal-enriched clouds, fed by fallback from the bubbles and by streaming of metal-free gas from the cosmic web, grow in the centres of the dark matter haloes. Partial turbulent homogenization on scales resolved in the simulation is observed only in the densest clouds where the vortical time-scales are short enough to ensure true homogenization on subgrid scales. However, the abundances in the clouds differ from the gross yields of the supernovae. Continuing the simulations until the cloud have gone into gravitational collapse, we predict that the abundances in second-generation stars will be deficient in the innermost mass shells of the supernova (if only one has exploded) or in the ejecta of the latest supernovae (when multiple have exploded). This indicates that hydrodynamics gives rise to biases complicating the identification of nucleosynthetic sources in the chemical abundance spaces of the surviving stars.

Description: We simulate the formation of a low-metallicity (10 –2 Z ) stellar cluster at redshift z  ~ 14. Beginning with cosmological initial conditions, the simulation utilizes adaptive mesh refinement and sink particles to follow the collapse and evolution of gas past the opacity limit for fragmentation, thus resolving the formation of individual protostellar cores. A time- and location-dependent protostellar radiation field, which heats the gas by absorption on dust, is computed by integration of protostellar evolutionary tracks. The simulation also includes a robust non-equilibrium chemical network that self-consistently treats gas thermodynamics and dust–gas coupling. The system is evolved for 18 kyr after the first protostellar source has formed. In this time span, 30 sink particles representing protostellar cores form with a total mass of 81 M . Their masses range from ~0.1 to 14.4 M with a median mass ~0.5–1 M . Massive protostars grow by competitive accretion while lower mass protostars are stunted in growth by close encounters and many-body ejections. In the regime explored here, the characteristic mass scale is determined by the cosmic microwave background temperature floor and the onset of efficient dust–gas coupling. It seems unlikely that host galaxies of the first bursts of metal-enriched star formation will be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope or other next-generation infrared observatories. Instead, the most promising access route to the dawn of cosmic star formation may lie in the scrutiny of metal-poor, ancient stellar populations in the Galactic neighbourhood. The observable targets corresponding to the system simulated here are ultra-faint dwarf satellite galaxies such as Boötes II and Willman I.

Description: We present results from three cosmological simulations, only differing in gas metallicity, that focus on the impact of metal fine-structure line cooling on stellar cluster formation in a high-redshift atomic cooling halo. Sink particles allow the process of gas hydrodynamics and accretion on to cluster stars to be followed for ~4 Myr corresponding to multiple local free-fall times. At metallicities at least 10 –3 Z , gas is able to reach the cosmic microwave background temperature floor and fragment pervasively resulting in a stellar cluster of size ~1 pc and total mass ~1000 M . The masses of individual sink particles vary, but are typically ~100 M , consistent with the Jeans mass at T CMB , though some solar mass fragments are also produced. Below 10 –4 Z , fragmentation is strongly suppressed on scales greater than 0.01 pc and total stellar mass is lower by a factor of ~3 than in the higher metallicity simulations. The sink particle accretion rates, and thus their masses, are determined by the mass of the gravitationally unstable gas cloud and prolonged gas accretion over many Myr, exhibiting features of both monolithic collapse and competitive accretion. Even considering possible dust-induced fragmentation that may occur at higher densities, the formation of a bona fide stellar cluster seems to require metal line cooling and metallicities of at least ~10 –3 Z .

Description: We simulate the formation of a metal-poor (10 –2 Z ) stellar cluster in one of the first galaxies to form in the early Universe, specifically a high-redshift atomic cooling halo ( z  ~ 14). This is the first calculation that resolves the formation of individual metal-enriched stars in simulations starting from realistic cosmological initial conditions. We follow the evolution of a single dense clump among several in the parent halo. The clump forms a cluster of ~40 stars and sub-stellar objects within 7000 yr and could continue forming stars ~5 times longer. Protostellar dust heating has a negligible effect on the star formation efficiency, at least during the early evolutionary stages, but it moderately suppresses gaseous fragmentation and brown dwarf formation. We observe fragmentation in thin gaseous filaments and sustained accretion in larger, rotating structures as well as ejections by binary interactions. The stellar initial mass function above 0.1 M , evaluated after ~10 4 yr of fragmentation and accretion, seems in agreement with the recent measurement in ultrafaint dwarf spheroidal Galactic satellites of Geha et al.

Description: To understand the conditions under which dense, molecular gas is able to form within a galaxy, we post-process a series of three-dimensional galactic-disc-scale simulations with ray-tracing-based radiative transfer and chemical network integration to compute the equilibrium chemical and thermal state of the gas. In performing these simulations, we vary a number of parameters, such as the interstellar radiation field strength, vertical scaleheight of stellar sources, and cosmic ray flux, to gauge the sensitivity of our results to these variations. Self-shielding permits significant molecular hydrogen (H 2 ) abundances in dense filaments around the disc mid-plane, accounting for approximately ~10–15 per cent of the total gas mass. Significant CO fractions only form in the densest, $n_{\mathrm{{\rm H}}}\gtrsim 10^3\,\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$ , gas where a combination of dust, H 2 , and self-shielding attenuates the far-ultraviolet background. We additionally compare these ray-tracing-based solutions to photochemistry with complementary models where photoshielding is accounted for with locally computed prescriptions. With some exceptions, these local models for the radiative shielding length perform reasonably well at reproducing the distribution and amount of molecular gas as compared with a detailed, global ray-tracing calculation. Specifically, an approach based on the Jeans length with a T  = 40 K temperature cap performs the best in regard to a number of different quantitative measures based on the H 2 and CO abundances.