The Birth of a Galaxy: Primordial Metal Enrichment and Stellar Populations

Understand

By definition, Population III stars are metal-free, and their protostellar collapse is driven by molecular hydrogen cooling in the gas-phase, leading to large characteristic masses.

• Population II stars with lower characteristic masses form when the star-forming gas reaches a critical metallicity of 10^{-6} - 10^{-3.5} Z_\odot.
• We present an adaptive mesh refinement radiation hydrodynamics simulation that follows the transition from Population III to II star formation.
• The maximum spatial resolution of 1 comoving parsec allows for individual molecular clouds to be well-resolved and their stellar associations to be studied in detail.