Molecules and Dust in the Early Universe: the Supernova Connection

Details Molecules and Dust in the Early Universe: the Supernova Connection Molecules and Dust in the Early Universe: the Supernova Connection

Nov 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aipc.1294..122c&link_type=abstract

THE FIRST STARS AND GALAXIES: CHALLENGES FOR THE NEXT DECADE. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1294, pp. 122-127 (2010).

Computer Science

Universe, Supernovae, Star Formation, Stellar Clusters, Particle-Theory And Field-Theory Models Of The Early Universe, Supernovae, Star Formation, Open Clusters In External Galaxies

Scientific paper

We present a novel investigation of dust synthesis in the ejecta of supernovae of zero metallicity progenitors to shed light on the origin of dust grains at high redshift. We show that massive primitive stars (M*~100-300 Msolar) are very efficient at forming molecules and dust in the ejecta of their supernova phase. About 20% of the progenitor mass is ejected in the form of gas-phase molecules, namely O2, CO, SiS, and SO and 5% of the progenitor mass is in the form of silicon-based dust. Lower-mass zero-metallicity progenitors exploding as core-collapse supernovae (M*~20 Msolar) are less efficient at forming molecules and dust than their massive counterparts, and their molecular and dust phases represent ~6% and ~0.5% of their progenitor mass, respectively. This is chiefly due to their higher helium content, which leads to a large population of He cations in the ejecta which is very effective at destroying molecules. However, if the carbon-rich ejecta zones are deprived of He+, they form carbon dust with a carbon depletion efficiency close to 1. Our results point to smaller amounts of dust by a factor ~5 compared to existing studies, owing to the use of a chemical kinetic description of dust formation and the chemical depletion of elements in molecules. This chemical depletion along with inhomogeneous mixing in the ejecta are key parameters in the determination of mass yields and chemical compositions of dust in local or high redshift supernovae.

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