Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:03:54.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Primordial Supernovae and the Assembly of the First Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2008

Daniel Whalen
Affiliation:
Applied Physics (X-2), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 email: [email protected]
Bob Van Veelen
Affiliation:
Astronomical Institute Utrecht, Princetonplein 5, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Brian W. O'Shea
Affiliation:
Theoretical Astrophysics (T-6), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
Michael L. Norman
Affiliation:
Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Current numerical studies suggest that the first protogalaxies formed a few stars at a time and were enriched only gradually by the first heavy elements. However, these models do not resolve primordial supernova (SN) explosions or the mixing of their heavy elements with ambient gas, which could result in intervening, prompt generations of low-mass stars. We present multiscale 1D models of Population III supernovae in cosmological minihalos that evolve the blast from its earliest stages as a free expansion. We find that if the star ionizes the halo, the ejecta strongly interacts with the dense shell swept up by the H II region, potentially cooling and fragmenting it into clumps that are gravitationally unstable to collapse. If the star fails to ionize the halo, the explosion propagates metals out to 20 - 40 pc and then collapses, heavily enriching tens of thousands of solar masses of primordial gas, in contrast to previous models that suggest that such explosions ‘fizzle’. Rapid formation of low-mass stars trapped in the gravitational potential well of the halo is unavoidable in these circumstances. Consequently, it is possible that far more stars were swept up into the first galaxies, at earlier times and with distinct chemical signatures, than in present models. Upcoming measurements by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) may discriminate between these two paradigms.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

Abel, T., Bryan, G. L., & Norman, M. L. 2002, Science, 295, 93CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abel, T., Wise, J. H., & Bryan, G. L. 2007, ApJL, 659, L87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvarez, M. A., Bromm, V., & Shapiro, P. R. 2006Google Scholar
Bromm, V., Ferrara, A., Coppi, P. S., & Larson, R. B. 2001, MNRAS, 328, 969CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitayama, T., Yoshida, N., Susa, H., & Umemura, M. 2004, ApJ, 613, 631Google Scholar
Nakamura, F. & Umemura, M. 2001, ApJ, 548, 19Google Scholar
Truelove, J. K. & McKee, C. F. 1999, ApJS, 120, 299CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoshida, N., Oh, S. P., Kitayama, T., & Hernquist, L. 2007, ApJ, 663, 687CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whalen, D., Abel, T., & Norman, M. L. 2004, ApJ, 610, 14Google Scholar
Whalen, D. & Norman, M. L. 2006, ApJS, 162, 281Google Scholar
Whalen, D., van Veelen, B., O'Shea, B. W., & Norman, M. L. 2008, ArXiv e-prints, 801, arXiv:0801.3698Google Scholar