scholarly journals 13C/18O ratio as a litmus test of stellar IMF variations in high-redshift starbursts

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S352) ◽  
pp. 234-238
Author(s):  
Donatella Romano ◽  
Zhi-Yu Zhang ◽  
Francesca Matteucci ◽  
Rob J. Ivison ◽  
Padelis P. Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Direct Methods ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Theoretical Ground ◽  
Litmus Test ◽  
The Universe

AbstractDetermining the shape of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and whether it is constant or varies in space and time is the Holy Grail of modern astrophysics, with profound implications for all theories of star and galaxy formation. On a theoretical ground, the extreme conditions for star formation (SF) encountered in the most powerful starbursts in the Universe are expected to favour the formation of massive stars. Direct methods of IMF determination, however, cannot probe such systems, because of the severe dust obscuration affecting their starlight. The next best option is to observe CNO bearing molecules in the interstellar medium at millimetre/ submillimetre wavelengths, which, in principle, provides the best indirect evidence for IMF variations. In this contribution, we present our recent findings on this issue. First, we reassess the roles of different types of stars in the production of CNO isotopes. Then, we calibrate a proprietary chemical evolution code using Milky Way data from the literature, and extend it to discuss extragalactic data. We show that, though significant uncertainties still hamper our knowledge of the evolution of CNO isotopes in galaxies, compelling evidence for an IMF skewed towards high-mass stars can be found for galaxy-wide starbursts. In particular, we analyse a sample of submillimetre galaxies observed by us with the Atacama Large Millimetre Array at the peak of the SF activity of the Universe, for which we measure 13C/18O⋍1. This isotope ratio is especially sensitive to IMF variations, and is little affected by observational uncertainties. At the end, ongoing developments of our work are briefly outlined.

scholarly journals Stellar populations in the highest redshift galaxies

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 197-198
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Bunker
Keyword(s):  
Galaxy Evolution ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Stellar Populations ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Star Forming ◽  
Near Ir ◽  
James Webb Space Telescope ◽  
Large Telescopes ◽  
The Universe

AbstractI discuss stellar populations in galaxies at high redshift (z > 6), in particular the blue rest-frame UV colours which have been detected in recent years through near-IR imaging with HST. These spectral slopes of β < −2 are much more blue than star-forming galaxies at lower redshift, and may suggest less dust obscuration, lower metallicity or perhaps a different initial mass function. I describe current work on the luminosity function of high redshift star- forming galaxies, the evolution of the fraction of strong Lyman-α emitters in this population, and the contribution of the ionizing photon budget from such galaxies towards the reionization of the Universe. I also describe constraints placed by Spitzer/IRAC on stellar populations in galaxies within the first billion years, and look towards future developments in spectroscopy with Extremely Large Telescopes and the James Webb Space Telescope, including the JWST/NIRSpec GTO programme on galaxy evolution at high redshift.

scholarly journals Stellar Population Models

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S295) ◽  
pp. 272-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Maraston
Keyword(s):  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Stellar Population ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Spectral Energy Distribution ◽  
Cosmic Time ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Asymptotic Giant Branch ◽  
Spectral Energy ◽  
Massive Galaxies

AbstractModelling stellar populations in galaxies is a key approach to gain knowledge on the still elusive process of galaxy formation as a function of cosmic time. In this review, after a summary of the state-of-art, I discuss three aspects of the modelling, that are particularly relevant to massive galaxies, the focus of this symposium, at low and high-redshift. These are the treatment of the Thermally-Pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch phase, evidences of an unusual Initial Mass Function, and the effect of modern stellar libraries on the model spectral energy distribution.

scholarly journals IAU Focus Meeting 7: Stellar Physics in Galaxies throughout the Universe

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 139-141
Author(s):  
Claus Leitherer ◽  
Stéphane Charlot ◽  
Claudia Maraston
Keyword(s):  
Stellar Evolution ◽  
Binary Stars ◽  
Main Sequence ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Dust Production ◽  
Chemical Enrichment ◽  
The Universe

AbstractA 3-day Focus Meeting entitled “Stellar Physics in Galaxies throughout the Universe” was held during the IAU XXIX General Assembly. The meeting brought together astrophysicists from the stellar physics, extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology communities to discuss how current and future results can foster progress in these disjoint science areas. Areas covered include stellar evolution of single and binary stars from the zero-age main-sequence to the terminal stage, the feedback of stars to the interstellar medium via radiation, dust production and chemical enrichment, and the properties of the most massive stars and of cosmologically significant stellar phases such as AGB and Wolf-Rayet stars. The limitations of our understanding of the physics of local stars and their effects on, e.g., ages, chemical composition and the initial mass function of galaxies at low to high redshift were evaluated.

scholarly journals Blue galaxies: modelling nebular He ii emission in high redshift galaxies

2019 ◽  
Vol 491 (3) ◽  
pp. 4509-4522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk S S Barrow
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Emission Line ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Good Test ◽  
Cosmological Simulations ◽  
Modelling Studies

ABSTRACT Using cosmological simulations to make useful, scientifically relevant emission line predictions is a relatively new and rapidly evolving field. However, nebular emission lines have been particularly challenging to model because they are extremely sensitive to the local photoionization balance, which can be driven by a spatially dispersed distribution of stars amidst an inhomogeneous absorbing medium of dust and gas. As such, several unmodelled mysteries in observed emission line patterns exist in the literature. For example, there is some question as to why He ii λ4686/H β ratios in observations of lower metallicity dwarf galaxies tend to be higher than model predictions. Since hydrodynamic cosmological simulations are best suited to this mass and metallicity regime, this question presents a good test case for the development of a robust emission line modelling pipeline. The pipeline described in this work can model a process that produces high He ii λ4686/H β ratios and eliminate some of the modelling discrepancy for ratios below 3 per cent without including AGNs, X-ray binaries, high mass binaries, or a top-heavy stellar initial mass function. These ratios are found to be more sensitive to the presence of 15 Myr or longer gaps in the star formation histories than to extraordinary ionization parameters or specific star formation rates. They also closely correspond to the WR phase of massive stars. In addition to the investigation into He ii λ4686/H β ratios, this work charts a general path forward for the next generation of nebular emission line modelling studies.

scholarly journals EMP stars with high mass IMF and hierarchical galaxy formation

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S265) ◽  
pp. 128-129
Author(s):  
Yutaka Komiya ◽  
Takuma Suda ◽  
Asao Habe ◽  
Masayuki Y. Fujimoto
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Galactic Halo ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Halo Stars ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Metallicity Distribution

AbstractExtremely metal-poor (EMP) stars in the Galactic halo are stars formed in the very early stage of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In previous study, we proposed that typical mass of EMP stars are massive, based on observations of carbon-enhanced EMP stars. In this study, we build a merger tree of the Galaxy semi-analytically and follow the chemical evolution along the merger tree. We also consider the effect of binary and high-mass initial mass function(IMF). Resultant theoretical metallicity distribution function (MDF) and abundance distribution are compared with observed metal-poor halo stars.

scholarly journals The sensitivity of stellar feedback to IMF averaging versus IMF sampling in galaxy formation simulations

2021 ◽  
Vol 502 (4) ◽  
pp. 5417-5437
Author(s):  
Matthew C Smith
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Stellar Populations ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
H Ii Regions ◽  
Stellar Feedback ◽  
Stellar Masses ◽  
The Imf

ABSTRACT Galaxy formation simulations frequently use initial mass function (IMF) averaged feedback prescriptions, where star particles are assumed to represent single stellar populations that fully sample the IMF. This approximation breaks down at high mass resolution, where stochastic variations in stellar populations become important. We discuss various schemes to populate star particles with stellar masses explicitly sampled from the IMF. We use Monte Carlo numerical experiments to examine the ability of the schemes to reproduce an input IMF in an unbiased manner while conserving mass. We present our preferred scheme which can easily be added to pre-existing star formation prescriptions. We then carry out a series of high-resolution isolated simulations of dwarf galaxies with supernovae (SNe), photoionization, and photoelectric heating to compare the differences between using IMF averaged feedback and explicitly sampling the IMF. We find that if SNe are the only form of feedback, triggering individual SNe from IMF averaged rates gives identical results to IMF sampling. However, we find that photoionization is more effective at regulating star formation when IMF averaged rates are used, creating more, smaller H ii regions than the rare, bright sources produced by IMF sampling. We note that the increased efficiency of the IMF averaged feedback versus IMF sampling is not necessarily a general trend and may be reversed depending on feedback channel, resolution and other details. However, IMF sampling is always the more physically motivated approach. We conservatively suggest that it should be used for star particles less massive than $\sim 500\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$.

scholarly journals Simulating star clusters across cosmic time – I. Initial mass function, star formation rates, and efficiencies

2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (2) ◽  
pp. 1880-1898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong-Chong He ◽  
Massimo Ricotti ◽  
Sam Geen
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Power Law ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Star Clusters ◽  
Cosmic Time ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Initial Mass ◽  
Solar Metallicity

ABSTRACT We present radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of star formation in self-gravitating, turbulent molecular clouds, modelling the formation of individual massive stars, including their UV radiation feedback. The set of simulations have cloud masses between mgas = 103 M⊙ and 3 × 105 M⊙ and gas densities typical of clouds in the local Universe ($\overline{n}_{\rm gas} \sim 1.8\times 10^2$ cm−3) and 10× and 100× denser, expected to exist in high-redshift galaxies. The main results are as follows. (i) The observed Salpeter power-law slope and normalization of the stellar initial mass function at the high-mass end can be reproduced if we assume that each star-forming gas clump (sink particle) fragments into stars producing on average a maximum stellar mass about $40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the mass of the sink particle, while the remaining $60{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ is distributed into smaller mass stars. Assuming that the sinks fragment according to a power-law mass function flatter than Salpeter, with log-slope 0.8, satisfy this empirical prescription. (ii) The star formation law that best describes our set of simulation is ${\rm d}\rho _*/{\rm d}t \propto \rho _{\rm gas}^{1.5}$ if $\overline{n}_{\rm gas}\lt n_{\rm cri}\approx 10^3$ cm−3, and ${\rm d}\rho _*/{\rm d}t \propto \rho _{\rm gas}^{2.5}$ otherwise. The duration of the star formation episode is roughly six cloud’s sound crossing times (with cs = 10 km s−1). (iii) The total star formation efficiency in the cloud is $f_*=2{{\ \rm per\ cent}} (m_{\rm gas}/10^4~\mathrm{M}_\odot)^{0.4}(1+\overline{n}_{\rm gas}/n_{\rm cri})^{0.91}$, for gas at solar metallicity, while for metallicity Z &lt; 0.1 Z⊙, based on our limited sample, f* is reduced by a factor of ∼5. (iv) The most compact and massive clouds appear to form globular cluster progenitors, in the sense that star clusters remain gravitationally bound after the gas has been expelled.

scholarly journals Fe II Emission as a Probe of Iron Abundance at Low-z Quasars

2004 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 202-203
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Verner
Keyword(s):  
High Redshift ◽  
Cosmological Parameters ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Reliable Model ◽  
Iron Abundance ◽  
Stellar Initial Mass Function ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Emission Ratios ◽  
Complex Ion

Whether the Fe/α enrichment is due to SN Ia explosions or massive objects is a key problem to be addressed in constructing our picture of galactic evolution in the Early Universe. Observations in the rest-frame of Mg II emission at 2800 Å and the broad emission complex of Fe II spanning 2000-3000 Å in high-z quasars should allow to determine the time in the Universe when increases in Fe abundance occur. This in turn provides us constraints on the stellar initial mass function and QSO formation and even the cosmological parameters. However a problem remains in developing a reliable model for this complex ion that accurately predicts the emission line spectra seen in luminous AGN at high redshift. The Fe II/Mg II emission ratios using new 830-level Fe II model are investigated with the intent to explain the observed Fe II/Mg II emission scatter.

scholarly journals First Light And Reionization Epoch Simulations (FLARES) – I. Environmental dependence of high-redshift galaxy evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (2) ◽  
pp. 2127-2145
Author(s):  
Christopher C Lovell ◽  
Aswin P Vijayan ◽  
Peter A Thomas ◽  
Stephen M Wilkins ◽  
David J Barnes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Galaxy Evolution ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Dynamic Range ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Formation Rate ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Distribution Functions ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Composite Distribution ◽  
Environmental Dependence

ABSTRACT We introduce the First Light And Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES), a suite of zoom simulations using the EAGLE model. We resimulate a range of overdensities during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) in order to build composite distribution functions, as well as explore the environmental dependence of galaxy formation and evolution during this critical period of galaxy assembly. The regions are selected from a large $(3.2 \, \mathrm{cGpc})^{3}$ parent volume, based on their overdensity within a sphere of radius 14 h−1 cMpc. We then resimulate with full hydrodynamics, and employ a novel weighting scheme that allows the construction of composite distribution functions that are representative of the full parent volume. This significantly extends the dynamic range compared to smaller volume periodic simulations. We present an analysis of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF), the star formation rate distribution function (SFRF), and the star-forming sequence (SFS) predicted by FLARES, and compare to a number of observational and model constraints. We also analyse the environmental dependence over an unprecedented range of overdensity. Both the GSMF and the SFRF exhibit a clear double-Schechter form, up to the highest redshifts (z = 10). We also find no environmental dependence of the SFS normalization. The increased dynamic range probed by FLARES will allow us to make predictions for a number of large area surveys that will probe the EoR in coming years, carried out on new observatories such as Roman and Euclid.

scholarly journals New methods for identifying Lyman continuum leakers and reionization-epoch analogues

2020 ◽  
Vol 498 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harley Katz ◽  
Dominika Ďurovčíková ◽  
Taysun Kimm ◽  
Joki Rosdahl ◽  
Jeremy Blaizot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emission Line ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Dwarf Galaxy ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Indirect Methods ◽  
High Redshift Galaxies ◽  
Lyman Continuum ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Ionization Parameter ◽  
Redshift Galaxies

ABSTRACT Identifying low-redshift galaxies that emit Lyman continuum radiation (LyC leakers) is one of the primary, indirect methods of studying galaxy formation in the epoch of reionization. However, not only has it proved challenging to identify such systems, it also remains uncertain whether the low-redshift LyC leakers are truly ‘analogues’ of the sources that reionized the Universe. Here, we use high-resolution cosmological radiation hydrodynamics simulations to examine whether simulated galaxies in the epoch of reionization share similar emission line properties to observed LyC leakers at z ∼ 3 and z ∼ 0. We find that the simulated galaxies with high LyC escape fractions (fesc) often exhibit high O32 and populate the same regions of the R23–O32 plane as z ∼ 3 LyC leakers. However, we show that viewing angle, metallicity, and ionization parameter can all impact where a galaxy resides on the O32–fesc plane. Based on emission line diagnostics and how they correlate with fesc, lower metallicity LyC leakers at z ∼ 3 appear to be good analogues of reionization-era galaxies. In contrast, local [S ii]-deficient galaxies do not overlap with the simulated high-redshift LyC leakers on the S ii Baldwin–Phillips–Terlevich (BPT) diagram; however, this diagnostic may still be useful for identifying leakers. We use our simulated galaxies to develop multiple new diagnostics to identify LyC leakers using infrared and nebular emission lines. We show that our model using only [C ii]158 μm and [O iii]88 μm can identify potential leakers from non-leakers from the local Dwarf Galaxy Survey. Finally, we apply this diagnostic to known high-redshift galaxies and find that MACS 1149_JD1 at z = 9.1 is the most likely galaxy to be actively contributing to the reionization of the Universe.

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