Abundant Water from Early Supernovae at Cosmic Dawn

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Whalen, Daniel J., Latif, Muhammad A., Jessop, Christopher
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Whalen, Daniel J.
Latif, Muhammad A.
Jessop, Christopher
author_facet Whalen, Daniel J.
Latif, Muhammad A.
Jessop, Christopher
contents Primordial (or Pop III) supernovae were the first nucleosynthetic engines in the Universe, forging the heavy elements required for the later formation of planets and life. Water, in particular, is thought to be crucial to the cosmic origins of life as we understand it, and recent models have shown that water can form in low-metallicity gas like that present at high redshifts. Here we present numerical simulations that show that the first water in the Universe formed in Pop III core-collapse and pair-instability supernovae at redshifts $z \sim$ 20. The primary sites of water production in these remnants are dense molecular cloud cores, which in some cases were enriched with primordial water to mass fractions that were only a factor of a few below those in the Solar System today. These dense, dusty cores are also likely candidates for protoplanetary disk formation. Besides revealing that a primary ingredient for life was already in place in the Universe 100 - 200 Myr after the Big Bang, our simulations show that water was likely a key constituent of the first galaxies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_02051
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Abundant Water from Early Supernovae at Cosmic Dawn
Whalen, Daniel J.
Latif, Muhammad A.
Jessop, Christopher
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Primordial (or Pop III) supernovae were the first nucleosynthetic engines in the Universe, forging the heavy elements required for the later formation of planets and life. Water, in particular, is thought to be crucial to the cosmic origins of life as we understand it, and recent models have shown that water can form in low-metallicity gas like that present at high redshifts. Here we present numerical simulations that show that the first water in the Universe formed in Pop III core-collapse and pair-instability supernovae at redshifts $z \sim$ 20. The primary sites of water production in these remnants are dense molecular cloud cores, which in some cases were enriched with primordial water to mass fractions that were only a factor of a few below those in the Solar System today. These dense, dusty cores are also likely candidates for protoplanetary disk formation. Besides revealing that a primary ingredient for life was already in place in the Universe 100 - 200 Myr after the Big Bang, our simulations show that water was likely a key constituent of the first galaxies.
title Abundant Water from Early Supernovae at Cosmic Dawn
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02051