The First Population II Stars Formed in Externally Enriched Mini-halos

TL;DR

This paper simulates the formation of the earliest Population II stars through external metal enrichment from supernovae, revealing a rapid pathway for forming extremely metal-poor stars in mini-halos.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation demonstrating how external supernova enrichment leads to early Population II star formation in mini-halos, explaining the origin of the most metal-poor stars.

Findings

External enrichment occurs after supernova blast-wave impacts mini-halos.

Enriched gas reaches metallicity of Z ~ 2e-5 Zsun before collapsing.

Fragmentation into low-mass stars is driven by dust cooling at high densities.

Abstract

We present a simulation of the formation of the earliest Population II stars, starting from cosmological initial conditions and ending when metals created in the first supernovae are incorporated into a collapsing gas-cloud. This occurs after a supernova blast-wave collides with a nearby mini-halo, inducing further turbulence that efficiently mixes metals into the dense gas in the center of the halo. The gas that first collapses has been enriched to a metallicity of Z ~ 2e-5 Zsun. Due to the extremely low metallicity, collapse proceeds similarly to metal-free gas until dust cooling becomes efficient at high densities, causing the cloud to fragment into a large number of low mass objects. This external enrichment mechanism provides a plausible origin for the most metal-poor stars observed, such as SMSS J031300.36-670839.3, that appear to have formed out of gas enriched by a single supernova. This mechanism operates on shorter timescales than the time for low-mass mini-halos (M < 5e5 Msun) to recover their gas after experiencing a supernova. As such, metal-enriched stars will likely form first via this channel if the conditions are right for it to occur. We identify a number of other externally enriched halos that may form stars in this manner. These halos have metallicities as high as 0.01 Zsun, suggesting that some members of the first generation of metal-enriched stars may be hiding in plain sight in current stellar surveys.