Radiative Regulation of Population III Star Formation

TL;DR

This study investigates how ultraviolet radiation from Population III stars of various masses influences subsequent star formation, revealing that less massive stars (<25 M_sun) primarily exert negative feedback through H_2-dissociating radiation, affecting neighboring cloud evolution.

Contribution

The paper provides new three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations analyzing the mass-dependent radiative feedback effects of Pop III stars on early star formation.

Findings

Stars less than 25 M_sun cannot suppress H_2-dissociating feedback.

H_2 shell formation effectively shields H_2-dissociating radiation.

Feedback criteria depend on source star mass and radiation flux.

Abstract

We explore the impact of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from massive Population III (Pop III) stars of 25, 40, 80, and 120 M_sun on the subsequent Pop III star formation. In this paper, particular attention is paid to the dependence of radiative feedback on the mass of source Pop III star. UV radiation from the source star can work to impede the secondary star formation through the photoheating and photodissociation processes. Recently, Susa & Umemura (2006) have shown that the ionizing radiation alleviates the negative effect by H_2-dissociating radiation from 120$M_sun PopIII star, since an H_2 shell formed ahead of an ionizing front can effectively shield H_2-dissociating radiation. On the other hand, it is expected that the negative feedback by H_2-dissociating radiation can be predominant if a source star is less massive, since a ratio of the H_2-dissociating photon number to the ionizing photon number becomes higher. In order to investigate the radiative feedback effects from such less massive stars, we perform three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations, incorporating the radiative transfer effect of ionizing and H_2-dissociating radiation. As a result, we find that if a source star is less massive than ~25M_sun, the ionizing radiation cannot suppress the negative feedback of H_2-dissociating radiation. Therefore, the fate of the neighboring clouds around such less massive stars is determined solely by the flux of H_2-dissociating radiation from source stars. With making analytic estimates of H_2 shell formation and its shielding effect, we derive the criteria for radiation hydrodynamic feedback depending on the source star mass.