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Arxiv: Detecting Population III Stars through Tidal Disruption Events in the Era of JWST and Roman Published: 1/23/2024 3:31:16 PM Updated: 5/7/2024 5:45:33 PM

Paper abstract: The first generation metal-free stars, referred to as population III (PopIII) stars, are believed to be the first objects to form out of the pristinegas in the very early Universe. Pop III stars have different structures fromcurrent generation of stars and are important for generating heavy elements andshaping subsequent star formation. However, it is very challenging to directlydetect Pop III stars given their high redshifts and short life-times. In thispaper, we propose a novel method for detecting Pop III stars through theirtidal disruption events (TDEs) by massive black holes. We model the emissionproperties and calculate the expected rates for these unique TDEs in the earlyUniverse at z ~ 10. We find that Pop III star TDEs have much higher massfallback rates and longer evolution timescales compared to solar-type star TDEsin the local universe, which enhances the feasibility of their detection,although a good survey strategy will be needed for categorizing these sourcesas transients. We further demonstrate that a large fraction of the flareemissions are redshifted to infrared wavelengths, which can be detected by theJames Webb Space Telescope and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Last butnot least, we find a promising Pop III star TDE detection rate of up to a fewtens per year using the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, based on our currentunderstanding of the black hole mass function in the early Universe.