A cosmological framework for stellar collisions at high redshift in proto-globular clusters, nuclear star clusters, and Little Red Dots
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866917364817199104 |
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| author | Williams, Claire E. Naoz, Smadar Rose, Sanaea C. Burkhart, Blakesley Yoshida, Naoki Chen, Avi Kremer, Kyle Lake, William Marinacci, Federico Menon, Shyam H. Vogelsberger, Mark |
| author_facet | Williams, Claire E. Naoz, Smadar Rose, Sanaea C. Burkhart, Blakesley Yoshida, Naoki Chen, Avi Kremer, Kyle Lake, William Marinacci, Federico Menon, Shyam H. Vogelsberger, Mark |
| contents | Observations and cosmological simulations indicate that the early Universe hosted numerous compact, high-density stellar systems, where close encounters and physical collisions between stars were likely common. We develop a bottom-up framework for stellar dynamics in such environments, spanning systems with and without intermediate- and supermassive black holes, and covering regimes where stellar collisions may or may not dominate the evolution. This radially-resolved analytic model connects dense star clusters in their cosmological context to observable outcomes mediated by stellar collisions. Initial conditions and environmental properties are drawn from high-resolution cosmological simulations, enabling exploration across a broad region of parameter space. The analytic predictions are validated against Monte Carlo simulations, demonstrating good agreement across key regimes. We find that stellar collisions are ubiquitous in many high-redshift environments, with runaway sequences naturally leading to the formation of very massive stars at early times. Finally, we show that high rates of destructive collisions can rapidly build up extremely dense gaseous environments around massive black holes, potentially providing an analogue to the observed population of Little Red Dots. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_26872 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A cosmological framework for stellar collisions at high redshift in proto-globular clusters, nuclear star clusters, and Little Red Dots Williams, Claire E. Naoz, Smadar Rose, Sanaea C. Burkhart, Blakesley Yoshida, Naoki Chen, Avi Kremer, Kyle Lake, William Marinacci, Federico Menon, Shyam H. Vogelsberger, Mark Astrophysics of Galaxies Observations and cosmological simulations indicate that the early Universe hosted numerous compact, high-density stellar systems, where close encounters and physical collisions between stars were likely common. We develop a bottom-up framework for stellar dynamics in such environments, spanning systems with and without intermediate- and supermassive black holes, and covering regimes where stellar collisions may or may not dominate the evolution. This radially-resolved analytic model connects dense star clusters in their cosmological context to observable outcomes mediated by stellar collisions. Initial conditions and environmental properties are drawn from high-resolution cosmological simulations, enabling exploration across a broad region of parameter space. The analytic predictions are validated against Monte Carlo simulations, demonstrating good agreement across key regimes. We find that stellar collisions are ubiquitous in many high-redshift environments, with runaway sequences naturally leading to the formation of very massive stars at early times. Finally, we show that high rates of destructive collisions can rapidly build up extremely dense gaseous environments around massive black holes, potentially providing an analogue to the observed population of Little Red Dots. |
| title | A cosmological framework for stellar collisions at high redshift in proto-globular clusters, nuclear star clusters, and Little Red Dots |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.26872 |