Louise Welsh
Oxygen-enhanced Extremely Metal-poor Damped Lyα Systems: A Signpost of the First Stars?
Welsh, Louise; Cooke, Ryan; Fumagalli, Michele; Pettini, Max
Authors
Ryan Cooke
Michele Fumagalli
Max Pettini
Abstract
We present precise abundance determinations of two near-pristine damped Lyα systems (DLAs) to assess the nature of the [O/Fe] ratio at [Fe/H] < −3.0 (i.e., <1/1000 of the solar metallicity). Prior observations indicate that the [O/Fe] ratio is consistent with a constant value, [O/Fe] ≃ +0.4, when −3 < [Fe/H] < −2, but this ratio may increase when [Fe/H] ≲ −3. In this paper, we test this picture by reporting new, high-precision [O/Fe] abundances in two of the most metal-poor DLAs currently known. We derive values of [O/Fe] = +0.50 ± 0.10 and [O/Fe] = +0.62 ± 0.05 for these two z ≃ 3 near-pristine gas clouds. These results strengthen the idea that the [O/Fe] abundances of the most metal-poor DLAs are elevated compared to DLAs with [Fe/H] ≳ −3. We compare the observed abundance pattern of the latter system to the nucleosynthetic yields of Population III supernovae (SNe), and find that the enrichment can be described by a (19–25) M⊙ Population III SN that underwent a (0.9–2.4) × 1051 erg explosion. These high-precision measurements showcase the behavior of [O/Fe] in the most metal-poor environments. Future high-precision measurements in new systems will contribute to a firm detection of the relationship between [O/Fe] and [Fe/H]. These data will reveal whether we are witnessing a chemical signature of enrichment from Population III stars and allow us to rule out contamination from Population II stars.
Citation
Welsh, L., Cooke, R., Fumagalli, M., & Pettini, M. (2022). Oxygen-enhanced Extremely Metal-poor Damped Lyα Systems: A Signpost of the First Stars?. Astrophysical Journal, 929(2), Article 158. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac4503
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Dec 18, 2021 |
Online Publication Date | Apr 25, 2022 |
Publication Date | Apr 20, 2022 |
Deposit Date | Jun 8, 2022 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 8, 2022 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Print ISSN | 0004-637X |
Electronic ISSN | 1538-4357 |
Publisher | American Astronomical Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 929 |
Issue | 2 |
Article Number | 158 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac4503 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1201778 |
Files
Published Journal Article
(2.6 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright Statement
Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title
of the work, journal citation and DOI.
You might also like
The stochastic enrichment of Population II stars
(2020)
Journal Article
A limit on Planck-scale froth with ESPRESSO
(2020)
Journal Article
A bound on the 12C/13C ratio in near-pristine gas with ESPRESSO
(2020)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search