ISM-SPP

The low-metallicity ISM: Metal enrichment, chemistry, feedback and magnetic fields

We explore the properties of the low-metallicity ISM, i.e. the conditions of the interstellar gas at very early times, during the formation of the first stars and galaxies, and also in nearby dwarf galaxies with a rather small amount of previous metal-enrichment. We pursue a comprehensive approach that includes the most accurate modeling to date of the chemistry in low-metallicity gas, including the ionization degree and the consequences for non-ideal magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) and dynamo amplification (sub-project CHEMPROP). The chemical networks, numerical simulations and non-ideal MHD models developed in this work will be made publicly available, in particular within the framework of the ISM-SPP. This work is timely and relevant due to the advent of ALMA and JWST, which will probe the low-metallicity ISM at high redshift.We are currently working on a series of reduction and optimization techniques aimed at reducing the time spent in solving the chemistry during a simulation.

Project webpage:

http://low-met.astro.physik.uni-goettingen.de/

Team members:

Robi Banerjee (Hamburger Sternwarte)
Stefano Bovino
Adam Dybulla (Hamburger Sternwarte)
Christoph Federrath (Monash University, Australia)
Simon Glover (ZAH/ITA Heidelberg)
Ralf Klessen (ZAH/ITA Heidelberg)
Dominik Schleicher (Uni Göttingen)
Jennifer Schober (ZAH/ITA Heidelberg)




This priority program is funded by the German Research Foundation DFG.