The imprint of cosmological non-Gaussianities on primordial structure formation

We study via numerical N-body/SPH chemistry simulations the effects of primordial non-Gaussianities on the formation of the first stars and galaxies, and investigate the impact of supernova feedback in cosmologies with different fnl. Density distributions are biased to higher values, so star formation and the consequent feedback processes take place earlier in high-fnl models and later in low-fnl ones. Mechanical feedback is responsible for shocking and evacuating the gas from star forming sites earlier in the highly non-Gaussian cases, because of the larger bias at high densities. Chemical feedback translates into high-redshift metal filling factors that are larger by some orders of magnitude for larger fnl, but that converge within one Gyr, for both population III and population II-I stellar regimes. The efficient enrichment process, though, leads to metallicities > 0.01 Zsun by redshift ~9, almost independently from fnl. The impact of non-Gaussianities on the formation of dark-matter haloes at high redshift is directly reflected in the properties of the gas in these haloes, as models with larger fnl show more concentrated gas profiles at early times. Non-Gaussian signatures in the gas behaviour are lost after the first feedback takes place and introduces a significant degree of turbulence and chaotic motions.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures - accepted for publication in MNRA

Revised rate coefficients for H2_2 and H−^- destruction by realistic stellar spectra

Understanding the processes that can destroy H$_2$ and H$^-$ species is quintessential in governing the formation of the first stars, black holes and galaxies. In this study we compute the reaction rate coefficients for H$_2$ photo--dissociation by Lyman--Werner photons ($11.2 - 13.6$ eV), and H$^-$ photo--detachment by 0.76 eV photons emanating from self-consistent stellar populations that we model using publicly available stellar synthesis codes. So far studies that include chemical networks for the formation of molecular hydrogen take these processes into account by assuming that the source spectra can be approximated by a power-law dependency or a black-body spectrum at 10$^4$ or $10^5$ K. We show that using spectra generated from realistic stellar population models can alter the reaction rates for photo-dissociation, $\rm k_{\rm{di}}$, and photo-detachment, $\rm k_{\rm{de}}$, significantly. In particular, $\rm k_{\rm{de}}$ can be up to $\sim 2-4$ orders of magnitude lower in the case of realistic stellar spectra suggesting that previous calculations have over-estimated the impact that radiation has on lowering H$_2$ abundances. In contrast to burst modes of star formation, we find that models with continuous star formation predict increasing $\rm k_{\rm{de}}$ and $\rm k_{\rm{di}}$, which makes it necessary to include the star formation history of sources to derive self-consistent reaction rates, and that it is not enough to just calculate J$_{21}$ for the background. For models with constant star formation rate the change in shape of the spectral energy distribution leads to a non-negligible late-time contribution to $\rm k_{\rm{de}}$ and $\rm k_{\rm{di}}$, and we present self-consistently derived cosmological reaction rates based on star formation rates consistent with observations of the high redshift Universe.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, 9 pages, 7 figures. Comments and communication welcom

Suppression of accretion onto low-mass Population III stars

Motivated by recent theoretical work suggesting that a substantial fraction of Population (Pop) III stars may have had masses low enough for them to survive to the present day, we consider the role that the accretion of metal-enriched gas may have had in altering their surface composition, thereby disguising them as Pop II stars. We demonstrate that if weak, Solar-like winds are launched from low-mass Pop III stars formed in the progenitors of the dark matter halo of the Galaxy, then such stars are likely to avoid significant enrichment via accretion of material from the interstellar medium. We find that at early times accretion is easily prevented if the stars are ejected from the central regions of the haloes in which they form, either by dynamical interactions with more massive Pop III stars, or by violent relaxation during halo mergers. While accretion may still take place during passage through sufficiently dense molecular clouds at later times, we find that the probability of such a passage is generally low (< 0.1), assuming that stars have velocities of order the maximum circular velocity of their host haloes and accounting for the orbital decay of merging haloes. In turn, due to the higher gas density required for accretion onto stars with higher velocities, we find an even lower probability of accretion (~ 0.01) for the subset of Pop III stars formed at z > 10, which are more quickly incorporated into massive haloes than stars formed at lower redshift. While there is no a priori reason to assume that low-mass Pop III stars do not have Solar-like winds, without them surface enrichment via accretion is likely to be inevitable. We briefly discuss the implications that our results hold for stellar archaeology.Comment: 9 pages; 2 figures; MNRAS accepte

A simple model for the size-evolution of elliptical galaxies

We use semi-analytical modelling of galaxy formation to predict the redshift-size-evolution of elliptical galaxies. Using a simple model in which relative sizes of elliptical galaxies of a given mass correlate with the fraction of stars formed in a star burst during a major merger event, we are able to reproduce the observed size redshif t evolution. The size evolution is a result of the amount of cold gas available during the major merger. Mergers at high redshifts are gas-rich and produce ellipticals with smaller sizes. In particular we find a power-law relation between the sizes at different redshifts, with the power-law index giving a measure of the relative amount of dissipation during the mergers that lead to the formation of an elliptical. The size evolution is found to be stronger for more massive galaxies as they involve more gas at high redshifts when they form compared to less massive ellipticals. Local ellipticals more massive than $5 \times 10^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$ will be approximately 4 times larger than their counterparts at $z=2$. Our results indicate that the scatter in the size of similar massive present day elliptical galaxies is a result of their formation epoch, with smaller ellipticals being formed earlier.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to ApJ Letters, replaced by accepted versio

The First Billion Years project - IV: Proto-galaxies reionising the Universe

The contribution of stars in galaxies to cosmic reionisation depends on the star formation history in the Universe, the abundance of galaxies during reionisation, the escape fraction of ionising photons and the clumping factor of the inter-galactic medium (IGM). We compute the star formation rate and clumping factor during reionisation in a cosmological volume using a high-resolution hydrodynamical simulation. We post-process the output with detailed radiative transfer simulations to compute the escape fraction of ionising photons. Together, this gives us the opportunity to assess the contribution of galaxies to reionisation self-consistently. The strong mass and redshift dependence of the escape fraction indicates that reionisation occurred between z=15 and z=10 and was mainly driven by proto-galaxies forming in dark-matter haloes with masses between 1e7 and 1e8 solar mass. More massive galaxies that are rare at these redshifts and have significantly lower escape fractions contribute less photons to the reionisation process than the more-abundant low-mass galaxies. Star formation in the low-mass haloes is suppressed by radiative feedback from reionisation, therefore these proto-galaxies only contribute when the part of the Universe they live in is still neutral. After z~10, massive galaxies become more abundant and provide most of the ionising photons. In addition, we find that Population (Pop) III stars are too short-lived and not frequent enough to have a major contribution to reionisation. Although the stellar component of the proto-galaxies that produce the bulk of ionising photons during reionisation is too faint to be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), these sources are brightest in the H-alpha and Ly-alpha recombination lines, which will likely be detected by JWST in deep surveys.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS letter