Fragmentation in turbulent primordial gas

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to show that subsonic turbulence in primordial gas can induce significant fragmentation, leading to a wide range of stellar masses, with outcomes varying based on local turbulence properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that even low levels of turbulence can cause fragmentation in primordial gas, highlighting the importance of turbulence characteristics in early star formation.

Findings

Primordial gas is highly susceptible to fragmentation due to turbulence.

Fragments span a mass range from 0.1 to 40 solar masses.

Fragmentation outcomes depend on local turbulent velocity field properties.

Abstract

We report results from numerical simulations of star formation in the early universe that focus on the role of subsonic turbulence, and investigate whether it can induce fragmentation of the gas. We find that dense primordial gas is highly susceptible to fragmentation, even for rms turbulent velocity dispersions as low as 20% of the initial sound speed. The resulting fragments cover over two orders of magnitude in mass, ranging from 0.1 to 40 solar masses. However, our results suggest that the details of the fragmentation depend on the local properties of the turbulent velocity field and hence we expect considerable variations in the resulting stellar mass spectrum in different halos.