Population III star explosions and Planck 2018 data

TL;DR

This paper explores how Population III star supernovae influence early universe reionization and uses Planck 2018 data to constrain their abundance, providing insights into the properties of the first stars.

Contribution

Introduces a new parameter to model Pop III supernova contribution to reionization and constrains it using Planck polarization data, linking observations to star formation models.

Findings

CMB polarization data is consistent with predicted Pop III supernova abundance.

The model parameter $ta$ is constrained by Planck data.

Further observations could refine understanding of Pop III star properties.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of the population III (Pop III) stars supernova explosion~(SN) on the high redshifts reionization history using the latest Planck data. It is predicted that massive Pop~III stars~($130M_\odot\leq M\leq 270M_\odot$) explode energetically at the end of their stellar life as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). In the explosion, supernova remnants grow as hot ionized bubbles and enhance the ionization fraction in the early stage of the reionization history. This enhancement affects the optical depth of the cosmic microwave background~(CMB) and generates the additional anisotropy of the CMB polarization on large scales. Therefore, analyzing the Planck polarization data allows us to examine the Pop III star SNe and the abundance of their progenitors, massive Pop III stars. In order to model the SN contribution to reionization, we introduce a new parameter $\zeta$, which relates to the abundance of the SNe to the collapse fraction of the Universe. Using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method with the latest Planck polarization data, we obtain the constraint on our model parameter, $\zeta$. Our constraint tells us that observed CMB polarization is consistent with the abundance of PISNe predicted from the star formation rate and initial mass function of Pop III stars in recent cosmological simulations. We also suggest that combining further observations on the late reionization history such as high redshift quasi-stellar object~(QSO) observations can provide tighter constraints and important information on the nature of Pop III stars.