Understand
JWST has brought us new insights into Cosmic Dawn with tentative detection of the unique signatures of metal-free Population III (Pop III) stars, such as strong HeII emission, extremely blue UV spectrum, and enhanced nitrogen abundance.
- Self-consistent theoretical predictions of the formation rates, sites, and masses of Pop III stars are crucial for interpreting the observations, but are challenging due to complex physical processes operating over the large range of length scales involved.
- One solution is to combine analytical models for the small-scale star formation process with cosmological simulations that capture the large-scale physics such as structure formation, radiation backgrounds, and baryon-dark matter streaming motion that regulate the conditions of Pop III star formation.
- We build an analytical model to predict the final masses of Pop III stars/clusters from the properties of star-forming clouds, based on the key results of small-scale star formation simulations and stellar evolution models.