G. Liang
Lighting the Universe with Filaments
Liang, G.; Theuns, T.
Authors
T. Theuns
Abstract
The first stars in the universe form when chemically pristine gas heats as it falls into dark-matter potential wells, cools radiatively because of the formation of molecular hydrogen, and becomes self-gravitating. Using supercomputer simulations, we demonstrated that the stars' properties depend critically on the currently unknown nature of the dark matter. If the dark-matter particles have intrinsic velocities that wipe out small-scale structure, then the first stars form in filaments with lengths on the order of the free-streaming scale, which can be 1020 meters (3 kiloparsecs, corresponding to a baryonic mass of 107 solar masses) for realistic "warm dark matter" candidates. Fragmentation of the filaments forms stars with a range of masses, which may explain the observed peculiar element abundance pattern of extremely metal-poor stars, whereas coalescence of fragments and stars during the filament's ultimate collapse may seed the supermassive black holes that lurk in the centers of most massive galaxies.
Citation
Liang, G., & Theuns, T. (2007). Lighting the Universe with Filaments. Science, 317(5844), 1527-1530. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1146676
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Sep 1, 2007 |
Deposit Date | May 28, 2008 |
Journal | Science |
Print ISSN | 0036-8075 |
Electronic ISSN | 1095-9203 |
Publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 317 |
Issue | 5844 |
Pages | 1527-1530 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1146676 |
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