We examine the case for Quark-Novae (QNe) as possible sources for the reionization and early metal enrichment of the universe. Quark-Novae are predicted to arise from the explosive collapse (and conversion) of sufficiently massive neutron stars into
quark stars. A Quark-Nova (QN) can occur over a range of time scales following the supernova event. For QNe that arise days to weeks after the supernovae, we show that dual-shock that arises as the QN ejecta encounter the supernova ejecta can produce enough photons to reionize hydrogen in most of the Inter-Galactic medium (IGM) by z ~ 6. Such events can explain the large optical depth tau_e ~ 0.1 as measured by WMAP, if the clumping factor, C, of the material being ionized is smaller than 10. We suggest a way in which a normal initial mass function (IMF) for the oldest stars can be reconciled with a large optical depth as well as the mean metallicity of the early IGM post reionization. We find that QN also make a contribution to r-process element abundances for atomic numbers A > 130. We predict that the main cosmological signatures of Quark-Novae are the gamma-ray bursts that announce their birth. These will be clustered at redshifts in the range z ~ 7-8 in our model.
We present three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of superbubbles, to study the importance of MHD effects in the interpretation of images from recent surveys of the Galactic plane. These simulations focus mainly on atmospheres define
d by an exponential density distribution and the Dickey & Lockman (1990) density distribution. In each case, the magnetic field is parallel to the Galactic plane and we investigate cases with either infinite scale height (constant magnetic field) or a constant ratio of gas pressure to magnetic pressure. The three-dimensional structure of superbubbles in these simulations is discussed with emphasis on the axial ratio of the cavity as a function of magnetic field strength and the age of the bubble. We investigate systematic errors in the age of the bubble and scale height of the surrounding medium that may be introduced by modeling the data with purely hydrodynamic models. Age estimates derived with symmetric hydrodynamic models fitted to an asymmetric magnetized superbubble can differ by up to a factor of four, depending on the direction of the line of sight. The scale height of the surrounding medium based on the Kompaneets model may be up to 50% lower than the actual scale height. We also present the first ever predictions of Faraday rotation by a magnetized superbubble based on three-dimensional MHD simulations. We emphasize the importance of MHD effects in the interpretation of observations of superbubbles.
