University of
Notre Dame
College of
Science
Department of
Physics

Astrophysics Seminar

 

Population III Stars and the Formation of the First Protogalaxies

 

Dr. Brian O'Shea
Theoretical Physics
Los Alamos National Laboratory

 

 

Tuesday, September 4, 2007   12:30 pm   
NSH 124 (Nuclear Seminar Room)*


I use the cosmological adaptive mesh refinement code Enzo to do a suite of high-resolution numerical simulations of Population III protostellar clouds in a cosmological context. These calculations examine the formation of primordial protostellar clouds at a range of redshifts and in differing cosmic "neighborhoods." I find that these cores have a wide variety of accretion rates - varying by over two orders of magnitude - which may have significant implications for the IMF of Population III stars. I then simulate supernovae from the inferred stellar mass range and follow the evolution of the ensuing supernova remnant until the deposition of metal-enriched gas in the next generation of halos, which generally occurs ~50 million years after the original supernova. The dense gas in the core of these "child" halos is typically enriched to metallicities of ~10-3 solar, which is above the "critical metallicity" at which metal line cooling dominates over molecular cooling, and suggests that the stars in these halos will have a significantly lower mass range than their Population III parents. This metal enrichment is a local phenomenon, and the transition of the universe from primordial to metal-enriched gas will be quite extended.

 

 

*Note different location.


All interested persons are cordially invited to attend.
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