The Spatial Distribution of the Galactic First Stars I: High-Resolution N-body Approach

Abstract

We study the spatial distribution of Galactic metal-free stars by combining an extremely high-resolution (7.8 X 10^5 solar masses per particle) Cold Dark Matter N-body simulation of the Milky-Way with a semi-analytic model of metal enrichment. This approach allows us to resolve halos with virial temperatures down to the 10^4K atomic cooling limit, and it is sufficiently flexible to make a number of robust conclusions, despite the extremely uncertain properties of the first stars. Galactic metal-free stars are formed over a large redshift range, which peaks at z~10, but continues down to z~5, contributing stars at wide range of Galactocentric radii. Stars containing only metals generated by primordial stars are similarly widespread. Neither changing the efficiency of metal dispersal by two orders of magnitude, nor drastically changing the approximations in our semi-analytical model can affect these result. Thus, if they have sufficiently long lifetimes, a significant number of stars formed in initially primordial star clusters should be found in the nearby Galactic halo regardless of the specifics of metal-free star formation. Observations of metal abundances in Galactic halo stars should be taken as directly constraining the properties of primordial stars, and the lack of metal-free halo stars today should be taken as strongly suggesting a 0.8 solar mass lower limit on the primordial initial mass function.

arXiv comment17 Pages, ApJ, in Press. Higher resolution version available here: http://www.ociw.edu/~dkawata/for/evan/draft/final/ms.pdf

References in corpus (68)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Dark Matter Substructure in Galactic Halos
• The Nucleosynthetic Signature of Population III
• The New Galaxy: Signatures of its Formation
• First stars V - Abundance patterns from C to Zn and supernova yields in the early Galaxy
• On the properties of massive Population III stars and metal-free stellar populations
• Reionization and the abundance of galactic satellites
• Effect of Reionization on the Structure Formation in the Universe
• LCDM-based models for the Milky Way and M31 I: Dynamical Models
• Kinematics of Metal-Poor Stars in the Galaxy. III. Formation of the Stellar Halo and Thick Disk as Revealed from a Large Sample of Non-Kinematically Selected Stars
• The tumultuous lives of galactic dwarfs and the missing satellites problem
• Simulations of Early Structure Formation: Primordial Gas Clouds
• Nucleosynthetic signatures of the first stars
• The Formation and Fragmentation of Primordial Molecular Clouds
• A stellar relic from the early Milky Way
• The Hamburg/ESO R-process Enhanced Star survey (HERES) II. Spectroscopic analysis of the survey sample
• First stars, very massive black holes and metals
• The Effects of Photoionization on Galaxy Formation - I: Model and Results at z=0
• First-generation black-hole-forming supernovae and the metal abundance pattern of a very iron-poor star
• Destruction of Molecular Hydrogen During Cosmological Reionization
• Metallicity of the intergalactic medium using pixel statistics. II. The distribution of metals as traced by C IV
• Second-Generation Objects in the Universe: Radiative Cooling and Collapse of Halos with Virial Temperatures Above 10^4 Kelvin
• Multiscale Gaussian Random Fields for Cosmological Simulations
• Semi-analytic predictions for statistical properties of X-ray clusters of galaxies in cold dark matter universes
• The radial velocity dispersion profile of the Galactic halo: Constraining the density profile of the dark halo of the Milky Way
• The first chemical enrichment in the universe and the formation of hyper metal-poor stars
• Equilibrium Disk-Bulge-Halo Models for the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies
• Low-Mass Relics of Early Star Formation
• GCD+: A New Chemodynamical Approach to Modeling SNe and Chemical Enrichment
• Early Metal Enrichment by Pregalactic Outflows: II. Simulations of Blow-away
• The Formation of the First Stars I. Mass Infall Rates, Accretion Disk Structure and Protostellar Evolution
• HE1327-2326, an unevolved star with [Fe/H]<-5.0. I. A Comprehensive Abundance Analysis
• Is HE0107-5240 A Primordial Star? -- The Characteristics of Extremely Metal-Poor Carbon-Rich Stars --
• The Detectability of the First Stars and Their Cluster Enrichment Signatures
• Chemical Evolution in Hierarchical Models Of Cosmic Structure I: Constraints on the Early Stellar Initial Mass Function
• The distribution and kinematics of early high-sigma peaks in present-day haloes: implications for rare objects and old stellar populations
• Two populations of metal-free stars in the early Universe
• Internal Alignment of the Halos of Disk Galaxies in Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulations
• Abundances In Very Metal Poor Dwarf Stars
• Early Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium and its Feedback on Galaxy Formation
• H_2 Cooling of Primordial Gas Triggered by UV Irradiation
• The velocity dispersion and mass profile of the Milky Way
• Effects of a Soft X-ray Background on Structure Formation at High Redshift
• Mixing Metals in the Early Universe
• Spectroscopic Properties of the z=4.5 Lyman-alpha Emitters
• Nucleosynthesis, Reionization, and the Mass Function of the First Stars
• On the Mass of Population III Stars
• The C IV Mass Density of the Universe at Redshift 5
• Stellar Archaeology: a Keck Pilot Program on Extremely Metal-Poor Stars from the Hamburg/ESO Survey. II. Abundance Analysis
• Forming a Primordial Star in a Relic HII Region
• Constraints on the IMF of the first stars
• Metals in the Intergalactic Medium
• On the photodissociation of H2 by the first stars
• Radiation from the first forming stars
• Late reionization by supernova-driven winds
• Evolving Spectra of Pop III Stars: Consequences for Cosmological Reionization
• From First Stars to the Spite Plateau: a Possible Reconciliation of Halo Stars Observations with Predictions from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Secondary Star Formation in a Population III Object
• Multi-wavelength Cosmological Simulations of Elliptical Galaxies
• Violence in the Dark Ages
• Cosmological Origin of the Lowest Metallicity Halo Stars
• The Influence of Galactic Outflows on the Formation of Nearby Dwarf Galaxies
• Primordial Stellar Feedback and the Origin of Hyper Metal-Poor Stars
• The number and metallicities of the most metal-poor stars
• Probing High Redshift Radiation Fields with Gamma-Ray Absorption
• Linking the Metallicity Distribution of Galactic Halo Stars to the Enrichment History of the Universe
• Relics of metal-free low mass stars exploding as thermonuclear supernovae
• The first stars: Where did they form?

Cited by in corpus (43)

• Galaxy Formation Theory
• The Formation of the First Stars II. Radiative Feedback Processes and Implications for the Initial Mass Function
• GRB 080913 at redshift 6.7
• Probing the Formation of the First Low-Mass Stars with Stellar Archaeology
• Chemical Evolution in Hierarchical Models of Cosmic Structure II: The Formation of the Milky Way Stellar Halo and the Distribution of the Oldest Stars
• Where are the most ancient stars in the Milky Way?
• Uncovering the Chemical Signature of the First Stars in the Universe
• Constraining the primordial initial mass function with stellar archaeology
• The oldest and most metal poor stars in the APOSTLE Local Group simulations
• The Formation Times and Building Blocks of Milky Way-mass Galaxies in the FIRE Simulations
• Where are the Low-Mass Population III Stars ?
• The Fate of the First Galaxies. III. Properties of Primordial Dwarf Galaxies and their Impact on the Intergalactic Medium
• Mining the Galactic Halo for Very Metal-Poor Stars
• Predicting the locations of possible long-lived low-mass first stars: Importance of satellite dwarf galaxies
• Structure Formation Inside Triaxial Dark Matter Halos: Galactic Disks, Bulges and Bars
• The Spatial Distribution of the Galactic First Stars II: SPH Approach
• Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars, the Cosmic Microwave Background, and the Stellar IMF in the Early Universe
• A photometric survey for Lyalpha-HeII dual emitters: Searching for Population III stars in high-redshift galaxies
• On the formation of very metal-poor stars: The case of SDSS J1029151+172927
• Chemical signatures of the first star clusters
• Following the Cosmic Evolution of Pristine Gas II: The search for Pop III-Bright Galaxies
• The Photometric Metallicity and Carbon Distributions of the Milky Way's Halo and Solar Neighborhood from S-PLUS Observations of SDSS Stripe 82
• Following The Cosmic Evolution Of Pristine Gas I: Implications For Milky Way Halo Stars
• Galaxy formation with radiative and chemical feedback
• The origin of metal-poor stars on prograde disk orbits in FIRE simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies
• The history of the dark and luminous side of Milky Way-like progenitors
• Probing Population III Stars in Galaxy IOK-1 at z = 6.96 through He II Emission
• Suppression of accretion onto low-mass Population III stars
• Dissecting Galaxy Formation: II. Comparing Substructure in Pure Dark Matter and Baryonic Models
• Modeling the Pollution of Pristine Gas in the Early Universe
• The Most Metal-poor Stars in the Inner Bulge
• Population III stars around the Milky Way
• Metal Pollution of Low-Mass Population III Stars through Accretion of Interstellar Objects like `Oumuamua
• On the dearth of C-enhanced metal-poor stars in the Galactic bulge
• Modeling the survival of Population III stars till present day
• Where are the extremely metal-poor stars in the Milky Way and Andromeda? Expectations from TNG50
• Formation and Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectro-Photometry from Cosmo-Chemo-Dynamical Simulations
• Formation and fate of low metallicity stars in IllustrisTNG50
• Gravitational Wave Sources from Pop III Stars are Preferentially Located within the Cores of their Host Galaxies
• An analytical model of surface mass densities of cold dark matter haloes - with an application to MACHO microlensing optical depths
• The Lowest Metallicity Stars in the LMC: Clues from MaGICC Simulations
• Red Halos of Galaxies - Reservoirs of Baryonic Dark Matter?
• Primordial black holes capture by stars and induced collapse to low-mass stellar black holes