03.08.2013 Views

Copyright by Athena Ranice Stacy 2011 - The University of Texas at ...

Copyright by Athena Ranice Stacy 2011 - The University of Texas at ...

Copyright by Athena Ranice Stacy 2011 - The University of Texas at ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

abundances <strong>of</strong> HD, which also acts as a cooling agent in low-temper<strong>at</strong>ure pri-<br />

mordial gas (see Johnson and Bromm 2006). However, the presence <strong>of</strong> CRs can<br />

lead to ioniz<strong>at</strong>ion he<strong>at</strong>ing, as well. Whether this direct he<strong>at</strong>ing effect is strong<br />

enough to counter the additional cooling must be determined and will depend<br />

on the high-redshift CR energy density. Similar to our work, Rollinde et al.<br />

(2005, 2006) used models <strong>of</strong> early star form<strong>at</strong>ion to estim<strong>at</strong>e the CR energy<br />

density in the early Universe, constraining it with the observed Li abundances<br />

in metal-poor Galactic halo stars.<br />

In this paper, we will investig<strong>at</strong>e the importance <strong>of</strong> the CR feedback<br />

on Pop III star form<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>by</strong> modeling its effect on the cooling <strong>of</strong> primordial<br />

gas in two cases: collapse within minihaloes, and shocks associ<strong>at</strong>ed with the<br />

virializ<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> more massive DM haloes during the l<strong>at</strong>er stages <strong>of</strong> structure<br />

form<strong>at</strong>ion. <strong>The</strong> outline for this paper is as follows. In Chapter 6.2 we discuss<br />

CR acceler<strong>at</strong>ion and propag<strong>at</strong>ion in the high-redshift Universe and how these<br />

might differ from the present-day case. Chapter 6.3 describes the evolution<br />

<strong>of</strong> primordial gas in minihaloes and in virializ<strong>at</strong>ion shocks when accounting<br />

for the effects <strong>of</strong> CRs. For the minihalo case we furthermore discuss how the<br />

fragment<strong>at</strong>ion scale could change for a sufficiently high CR flux. We present<br />

our conclusions in Chapter 6.4.<br />

6.2 Cosmic rays in the high-z Universe<br />

6.2.1 Popul<strong>at</strong>ion III star form<strong>at</strong>ion<br />

Though CR effects will be examined for a range <strong>of</strong> star form<strong>at</strong>ion r<strong>at</strong>es,<br />

the typical Pop III star form<strong>at</strong>ion r<strong>at</strong>e is taken to be th<strong>at</strong> found in Bromm and<br />

Loeb (2006) <strong>at</strong> z 15, which is approxim<strong>at</strong>ely Ψ∗ 2×10 −2 M⊙ yr −1 Mpc −3 in<br />

a comoving volume. This r<strong>at</strong>e was derived using the extended Press-Schechter<br />

145

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!