Population III star formation during and after the reionization epoch

Abstract

Population III star formation during the dark ages shifted from minihalos (∼ 106 M⊙) cooled by molecular hydrogen to more massive halos (∼ 108 M⊙) cooled by Ly-α emission as Lyman- Werner backgrounds progressively quenched molecular hydrogen cooling. Eventually, both modes of primordial star formation were suppressed by the chemical enrichment of the IGM. We present a comprehensive model for following the modes of Population III star formation that is based on a combination of analytical calculations and cosmological simulations.We characterize the properties of the transition from metal-free star formation to the first Population II clusters for an average region of the Universe and for the..