A Cosmic Hide-and-seek: The Chemical Remains of the First Stars
by
Torgny Karlsson(NORDITA)
→
Europe/Stockholm
FA31
FA31
Description
Extensive numerical calculations of the star formation
process at the end of the so-called Cosmic Dark Ages,
~400 Myr after the Big Bang, predict a universe inhabited
by a population of predominantly very massive stars with
masses>100 M
☉
. If mass loss is limited, stars in the
specific mass range 140<m/M
☉
<260 will end their lifes
as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe), imprinting a
unique chemical signature in the gas out of which later
generations of stars were formed. However, inspite of
several observational attempts, these signatures have to
date remained undetected. Does this mean that the first
stars were less massive than what is currently believed,
or, are we perhaps looking in the wrong place?
