SETI bioastro: Formation of the First Stars

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astro-ph/0509354 [abs, ps, pdf, other] :

Title: Formation of the First Stars

Authors: Volker Bromm

Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures, Invited review to appear in "From Lithium to
Uranium: Elemental Tracers of Early Cosmic Evolution", IAU Symposium 228, V.
Hill, P. Francois & F. Primas, eds

How and when did the first generation of stars form at the end of the cosmic
dark ages? Quite generically, within variants of the cold dark matter model
of cosmological structure formation, the first sources of light are expected
to form in ~ 10^{6} M_sun dark matter potential wells at redshifts z > 20. I
discuss the physical processes that govern the formation of the first stars.
These so-called Population~III stars are predicted to be predominantly very
massive, and to have contributed significantly to the early reionization of
the intergalactic medium. Such an early reionization epoch is inferred from
the recent measurement of the Thomson optical depth by the {\it WMAP}
satellite. I address the importance of heavy elements in bringing about the
transition from an early star formation mode dominated by massive stars, to
the familiar mode dominated by low mass stars, at later times, and present
possible observational probes. This transition could have been gradual,
giving rise to an intermediate-mass population of still virtually metal-free
stars (``Population II.5''). These stars could have given rise to the
peculiar class of black-hole forming supernovae inferred from the abundance
pattern of extremely iron-poor stars.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0509354

• Previous message: LARRY KLAES: "SETI bioastro: Can stellar wobble in triple systems mimic a planet?"

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