FINDING HIGH-REDSHIFT DARK STARS WITH THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
- Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm (Sweden)
- Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, AlbaNova University Centre, 10691 Stockholm (Sweden)
- Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095-CNRS Paris, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Boulevard Arago 98bis, 75014, Paris (France)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala Astonomical Observatory, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala (Sweden)
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University (Israel)
- Physics Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT84112 (United States)
The first stars in the history of the universe are likely to form in the dense central regions of {approx}10{sup 5}-10{sup 6} M{sub sun} cold dark matter halos at z {approx} 10-50. The annihilation of dark matter particles in these environments may lead to the formation of so-called dark stars, which are predicted to be cooler, larger, more massive, and potentially more long-lived than conventional population III stars. Here, we investigate the prospects of detecting high-redshift dark stars with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We find that all dark stars with masses up to 10{sup 3} M{sub sun} are intrinsically too faint to be detected by JWST at z > 6. However, by exploiting foreground galaxy clusters as gravitational telescopes do, certain varieties of cool (T{sub eff} {<=} 30, 000 K) dark stars should be within reach at redshifts up to z {approx} 10. If the lifetimes of dark stars are sufficiently long, many such objects may also congregate inside the first galaxies. We demonstrate that this could give rise to peculiar features in the integrated spectra of galaxies at high redshifts, provided that dark stars make up at least {approx}1% of the total stellar mass in such objects.
- OSTI ID:
- 21452877
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 717, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/717/1/257; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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