High Redshift Star Formation under Fuzzy Dark Matter Conditions

Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) has been proposed as a potential alternative to the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm and has gained a lot of recent attention due to its ability to solve many observational problems with CDM (cusp-core problem, missing satellites problem, etc) . We wish to carry out some of the first zoom in simulations of FDM to examine the effects of FDM on star formation and fragmentation in the primordial star forming gas, and thereby investigate how the first stars formed under FDM conditions and how the unique properties of FDM affect this process when compared to the current CDM paradigm. We intend to use the cosmological hydrodynamics code AREPO to conduct these simulations.

Long term, this would then be done with a view to linking our findings to potential observables that could distinguish FDM such as the 21-cm global signal and power spectrum, which are affected by the nature, distribution, and initial mass function of the earliest stars. Additionally, preliminary work looked at the effects of FDM on large scales suggested that these early stars formed in filamentary structures as opposed to halos as is expected to be the case CDM and so the more detailed work we intend to conduct may confirm this finding and provide a direct observational signature of FDM if new telescopes such as JWST find early stars forming in filaments rather than in halos.