Talk Details

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 3:15pm

Thomas Greif (ITA):

"The Formation of the First Stars and Galaxies"

Abstract. Understanding the formation and properties of the first stars and galaxies is one of the main challenges in modern cosmology. In this talk I briefly review the formation process of the very first stars, followed by a discussion of their radiative and chemical feedback and their impact on subsequent stellar generations. I present numerical simulations with respect to the evolution of HII regions, supernova explosions and the emergence of the first galaxies. A great deal of interesting physics becomes important with the onset of galaxy formation, with turbulence and metal-enrichment being only two effects that create a highly complicated, multi-phase insterstellar medium.