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

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

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2006). This decrease in fragment<strong>at</strong>ion scale occurs for CR ioniz<strong>at</strong>ion r<strong>at</strong>es<br />

gre<strong>at</strong>er than ∼ 10 −19 s −1 . A sufficiently large flux <strong>of</strong> low-energy CRs could<br />

thus have facilit<strong>at</strong>ed the fragment<strong>at</strong>ion and collapse <strong>of</strong> primordial minihalo<br />

gas into Pop II.5 stars. Again, we emphasize the somewh<strong>at</strong> specul<strong>at</strong>ive n<strong>at</strong>ure<br />

<strong>of</strong> our argument regarding stellar mass scales. However, the general trend<br />

suggested here, th<strong>at</strong> the presence <strong>of</strong> CRs in the early Universe tends to enable<br />

lower mass star form<strong>at</strong>ion, might well survive closer scrutiny with numerical<br />

simul<strong>at</strong>ions.<br />

6.4 Summary and Discussion<br />

We have investig<strong>at</strong>ed the effect <strong>of</strong> CRs on the thermal and chemical<br />

evolution <strong>of</strong> primordial gas clouds in two important sites for Pop III star<br />

form<strong>at</strong>ion: minihaloes and higher-mass haloes undergoing strong virializ<strong>at</strong>ion<br />

shocks. We show th<strong>at</strong> the presence <strong>of</strong> CRs has a negligible impact on the<br />

evolution in the l<strong>at</strong>ter case, since the primordial gas is able to cool to the CMB<br />

floor even without the help <strong>of</strong> CR ioniz<strong>at</strong>ion, and the direct CR he<strong>at</strong>ing is also<br />

unimportant unless extremely high star form<strong>at</strong>ion r<strong>at</strong>es are assumed. Thus,<br />

the thermal and chemical evolution <strong>of</strong> haloes corresponding to the first dwarf<br />

galaxies is r<strong>at</strong>her robust, and the CR emission from the de<strong>at</strong>hs <strong>of</strong> previously<br />

formed Pop III stars will not initi<strong>at</strong>e any feedback in these star form<strong>at</strong>ion<br />

sites. <strong>The</strong> impact <strong>of</strong> CRs on gas in minihaloes, which would typically have<br />

formed before the more massive dwarf systems, could have been much more<br />

pronounced, given a sufficiently low ɛmin and Pop III star form<strong>at</strong>ion r<strong>at</strong>es th<strong>at</strong><br />

are not too low. In each case, the effect <strong>of</strong> direct CR he<strong>at</strong>ing is weaker than<br />

the indirect molecular cooling th<strong>at</strong> follows from the increased ioniz<strong>at</strong>ion due to<br />

CRs. <strong>The</strong> additional molecular cooling induced <strong>by</strong> the CRs allows the gas in a<br />

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