$Λ$CDM star clusters at cosmic dawn: stellar densities, environment, and equilibrium

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Williams, Claire E., Naoz, Smadar, Lake, William, Burkhart, Blakesley, Marinacci, Federico, Vogelsberger, Mark, Yoshida, Naoki, Menon, Shyam H., Chen, Avi, Adamo, Angela
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Williams, Claire E.
Naoz, Smadar
Lake, William
Burkhart, Blakesley
Marinacci, Federico
Vogelsberger, Mark
Yoshida, Naoki
Menon, Shyam H.
Chen, Avi
Adamo, Angela
author_facet Williams, Claire E.
Naoz, Smadar
Lake, William
Burkhart, Blakesley
Marinacci, Federico
Vogelsberger, Mark
Yoshida, Naoki
Menon, Shyam H.
Chen, Avi
Adamo, Angela
contents The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened a window on many new puzzles in the early Universe, including a population of high-redshift star clusters with extremely high stellar surface density, suggesting unique star formation conditions in the Universe's early evolution. We study the formation and evolution of these first star clusters and galaxies using an AREPO cosmological simulation box designed to resolve the intricate environments of the smallest halos hosting Population III star clusters at $z \geq 12$. Our approach, which prioritizes baryonic structure identification through a friends-of-friends algorithm, provides new insights into early star cluster formation and delivers predictions directly relevant to observations. We investigate the dynamical properties of these first star clusters and use numerical and analytical methods to understand the populations of virialized and non-virialized systems. Our findings indicate that high-$z$ star clusters in a feedback-free regime can achieve extreme surface densities, consistent with the systems detected by JWST. These results imply that JWST may have the opportunity to uncover stellar systems at high redshift whose dynamical state preserves evidence of the hierarchical structure formation process.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_17561
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle $Λ$CDM star clusters at cosmic dawn: stellar densities, environment, and equilibrium
Williams, Claire E.
Naoz, Smadar
Lake, William
Burkhart, Blakesley
Marinacci, Federico
Vogelsberger, Mark
Yoshida, Naoki
Menon, Shyam H.
Chen, Avi
Adamo, Angela
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened a window on many new puzzles in the early Universe, including a population of high-redshift star clusters with extremely high stellar surface density, suggesting unique star formation conditions in the Universe's early evolution. We study the formation and evolution of these first star clusters and galaxies using an AREPO cosmological simulation box designed to resolve the intricate environments of the smallest halos hosting Population III star clusters at $z \geq 12$. Our approach, which prioritizes baryonic structure identification through a friends-of-friends algorithm, provides new insights into early star cluster formation and delivers predictions directly relevant to observations. We investigate the dynamical properties of these first star clusters and use numerical and analytical methods to understand the populations of virialized and non-virialized systems. Our findings indicate that high-$z$ star clusters in a feedback-free regime can achieve extreme surface densities, consistent with the systems detected by JWST. These results imply that JWST may have the opportunity to uncover stellar systems at high redshift whose dynamical state preserves evidence of the hierarchical structure formation process.
title $Λ$CDM star clusters at cosmic dawn: stellar densities, environment, and equilibrium
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.17561