Near-field cosmology: uncovering the first stars' fingerprints

by Stefania Salvadori (University of Florence)

Thursday 4 Apr 2024, 11:30 → 12:30 Europe/Rome

Sala Jappelli (Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova)

The properties of the first stars, such as their mass distribution, are almost completely unknown but they control the injection of energy, photons, and newly created heavy elements into the primordial Universe. In our Milky Way and its satellite dwarf galaxies, we can accurately measure the chemical abundances of individual stars to uncover the fingerprints left by the first stellar generations in their long-lived descendants. Thus, by interpreting these observations with models and simulations we can indirectly study the properties of the first stars.

 

In this talk, I will present the latest observational and theoretical findings from Near-field cosmology. I will show how the minimum mass, characteristic mass, and shape of the first stars' mass distribution can be constrained by using a global approach, which compares detections and non-detections of first stars' descendants with their predicted frequency. In particular, I will discuss the recent discovery of a Galactic halo star likely imprinted by a very massive primordial Pair Instability Supernova and its enormous implications for the first stars' properties. Finally, I will present novel chemical diagnostics to uncover the fingerprints of the first stars in more distant gaseous absorbers.

 

Join Zoom Meeting
 

https://unipd.zoom.us/j/85273198731?pwd=V1ZiNE9ZWUN4ZTdIUzJsTFo0Z3U2Zz09
Meeting ID: 852 7319 8731
Passcode: 208186