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| Paper: |
Where do Metal-free Stars and their Products End Up in our Galaxy? |
| Volume: |
374, From Stars to Galaxies: Building the Pieces to Build Up the Universe |
| Page: |
21 |
| Authors: |
Kawata, D.; Scannapieco, E.; Brook, C.B.; Ferrara, A.; Gibson, B.K.; Martel, H.; Schneider, R. |
| Abstract: |
We study the spatial distribution of Galactic metal-free stars predicted in the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model of structure formation with two different approaches. The one is combining an extremely high-resolution (7.8×105M⊙ per particle) N-body simulation with a semi-analytical model of metal enrichment. This approach allows us to resolve halos with virial tem- peratures down to the 104K atomic cooling limit. The other one is analysing Milky-Way-analogue galaxies in cosmological, chemodynamical smoothed par- ticle hydrodynamical simulations. Both approaches reach the same conclusion that Galactic metal-free stars are formed over a large redshift range, contribut- ing stars at wide range of Galactocentric radii. Thus, if they have sufficiently long lifetimes, a significant number of stars formed in initially primordial star clusters should be found in the solar neighborhood. Observations of the Galactic halo should be taken as directly constraining the properties of primordial stars, and the lack of metal-free halo stars today should be taken as strong evidence of a 0.8 M⊙ lower limit on the primordial initial mass function. |
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