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Main Authors: Gurian, James, Jeong, Donghui, Liu, Boyuan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.05758
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author Gurian, James
Jeong, Donghui
Liu, Boyuan
author_facet Gurian, James
Jeong, Donghui
Liu, Boyuan
contents We develop an analytic model for the mass of the first stars forming in the center of primordial gas clouds as a function of host halo mass, redshift, and degree of rotation. The model is based on the estimation of key timescales determining the following three processes: the collapse of the gas cloud, the accretion onto the protostellar core, and the radiative feedback of the protostellar core. The final stellar mass is determined by the total mass accreted until the radiative feedback halts the accretion. The analytic estimation, motivated by the result of the full numerical simulations, leads to algebraic expressions allowing an extremely fast execution. Despite its simplicity, the model reproduces the stellar mass scale and its parameter dependences observed in state-of-the-art cosmological zoom-in simulations. This work clarifies the basic physical principles undergirding such numerical treatments and provides a path to efficiently calibrating numerical predictions against eventual observations of the first stars.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_05758
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Zero Metallicity with Zero CPU Hours: Masses of the First Stars on the Laptop
Gurian, James
Jeong, Donghui
Liu, Boyuan
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We develop an analytic model for the mass of the first stars forming in the center of primordial gas clouds as a function of host halo mass, redshift, and degree of rotation. The model is based on the estimation of key timescales determining the following three processes: the collapse of the gas cloud, the accretion onto the protostellar core, and the radiative feedback of the protostellar core. The final stellar mass is determined by the total mass accreted until the radiative feedback halts the accretion. The analytic estimation, motivated by the result of the full numerical simulations, leads to algebraic expressions allowing an extremely fast execution. Despite its simplicity, the model reproduces the stellar mass scale and its parameter dependences observed in state-of-the-art cosmological zoom-in simulations. This work clarifies the basic physical principles undergirding such numerical treatments and provides a path to efficiently calibrating numerical predictions against eventual observations of the first stars.
title Zero Metallicity with Zero CPU Hours: Masses of the First Stars on the Laptop
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.05758