First star formation in ultra-light particle dark matter cosmology

Abstract

The formation of the first stars in the high-redshift Universe is a sensitive probe of the small-scale, particle physics nature of dark matter (DM). We carry out cosmological simulations of primordial star formation in ultra-light, axion-like particle DM cosmology, with masses of $10^{-22}$ and $10^{-21}\mathrm{eV}$, with de Broglie wavelengths approaching galactic scales ($\sim$kpc). The onset of star formation is delayed, and shifted to more massive host structures. For the lightest DM particle mass explored here, first stars form at $z\sim 7$ in structures with $\sim 10^9{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, compared to the standard minihalo environment within the $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmology, where $z\sim 20-30$ and $\sim 10^5-10^6{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. Despite this greatly altered DM host environment, the thermodynamic behaviour of the metal-free gas as it collapses into the DM potential well asymptotically approaches a very similar evolutionary track. Thus, the fragmentation properties are predicted to remain the same as in $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, implying a similar mass scale for the first stars. These results predict intense starbursts in the axion cosmologies, which may be amenable to observations with the {\it James Webb Space Telescope}.

arXiv comment5 pages, 1 table, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (37)

• Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• Axion Cosmology
• Cold and Fuzzy Dark Matter
• Ultralight scalars as cosmological dark matter
• The Formation of the First Star in the Universe
• In the Beginning: The First Sources of Light and the Reionization of the Universe
• The Formation of the First Stars. I. The Primordial Star Forming Cloud
• Cosmic Structure as the Quantum Interference of a Coherent Dark Wave
• Multi-scale initial conditions for cosmological simulations
• The Core-Cusp Problem
• The Milky Way's bright satellites as an apparent failure of LCDM
• Reconciling dwarf galaxies with LCDM cosmology: Simulating a realistic population of satellites around a Milky Way-mass galaxy
• One Hundred First Stars : Protostellar Evolution and the Final Masses
• Understanding the Core-Halo Relation of Quantum Wave Dark Matter, $\psi$DM, from 3D Simulations
• First constraints on fuzzy dark matter from Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data and hydrodynamical simulations
• Formation of Primordial Stars in a LCDM Universe
• Relative velocity of dark matter and baryonic fluids and the formation of the first structures
• Formation of the First Stars
• Galaxy Formation with BECDM: I. Turbulence and relaxation of idealised haloes
• Primordial Star Formation under the Influence of Far Ultraviolet Radiation: 1540 Cosmological Halos and the Stellar Mass Distribution
• Axion dark matter, solitons, and the cusp-core problem
• Early Cosmological HII/HeIII Regions and Their Impact on Second-Generation Star Formation
• Contrasting Galaxy Formation from Quantum Wave Dark Matter, $\psi$DM, with $\Lambda$CDM, using Planck and Hubble Data
• Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics with particle splitting, applied to self-gravitating collapse
• High-Resolution Simulation on Structure Formation with Extremely Light Bosonic Dark Matter
• The moment of truth for WIMP Dark Matter
• Early Structure Formation and Reionization in a Warm Dark Matter Cosmology
• The Stellar Initial Mass Function in Primordial Galaxies
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: a measurement of the primordial power spectrum
• Lighting the Universe with filaments
• The formation of direct collapse black holes under the influence of streaming velocities
• Star Formation in the First Galaxies - II: Clustered Star Formation and the Influence of Metal Line Cooling
• Reionization and Galaxy Formation in Warm Dark Matter Cosmologies
• Assessing inflow rates in atomic cooling halos: implications for direct collapse black holes
• Impact of baryonic streaming velocities on the formation of supermassive black holes via direct collapse
• Early structure formation from primordial density fluctuations with a blue-tilted power spectrum

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Wave Dark Matter
• First star-forming structures in fuzzy cosmic filaments
• Galaxy Formation with BECDM -- II. Cosmic Filaments and First Galaxies
• When did Population III star formation end?
• Formation of the first star clusters and massive star binaries by fragmentation of filamentary primordial gas clouds
• Fate of scalar dark matter solitons around supermassive galactic black holes
• Starbursts in low-mass haloes at Cosmic Dawn. I. The critical halo mass for star formation
• Fuzzy Dark Matter at Cosmic Dawn: New 21-cm Constraints
• Constraints on anharmonic corrections of Fuzzy Dark Matter
• Impact of kinetic and potential self-interactions on scalar dark matter
• Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter: Constraints From Compact Ultra-Faint Dwarfs
• Gravitational Radiation Background from Boson Star Binaries
• Baryon-dark matter scattering and first star formation
• Global radiation signature from early structure formation
• Gravitational waves from mergers of Population III binary black holes: roles played by two evolution channels
• Effect of lithium hydride on the cooling of primordial gas
• Minimum star-forming halo mass in axion cosmology
• Constraining structure formation using EDGES
• If dark matter is fuzzy, the first stars form in massive pancakes
• Abundance matching for low mass galaxies in the CDM and FDM models
• Constraining the non-gravitational scattering of baryons and dark matter with early cosmic structure formation