On the effects of rotation in primordial star-forming clouds

TL;DR

This study uses 3D simulations to explore how initial rotation affects the thermodynamics, fragmentation, and star formation processes in primordial gas clouds, revealing that rotation significantly influences the formation and evolution of Population III stars.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the role of initial rotation in primordial star formation through detailed SPH simulations, highlighting its impact on cloud fragmentation and protostar properties.

Findings

Higher rotation leads to more fragmentation.

Rotating clouds form spiral structures and have lower accretion rates.

Protostars in faster rotating clouds may escape and survive.

Abstract

The thermodynamical evolution of gas during the collapse of the primordial star-forming cloud depends significantly on the initial degree of rotation. However, there is no clear understanding of how the initial rotation can affect the heating and cooling process and hence the temperature that leads to the fragmentation of the gas during Population III star formation. We report the results from three\hbox{-}dimensional, smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of a rotating self-gravitating primordial gas cloud with a modified version of the Gadget-2 code, in which the initial ratio of the rotational to the gravitational energy ($\beta_0$) is varied over two orders of magnitude. We find that despite the lack of any initial turbulence and magnetic fields in the clouds, the angular momentum distribution leads to the formation and build-up of a disk that fragments into several clumps. We further examine the behavior of the protostars that form in both idealized as well as more realistic minihalos from the cosmological simulations. The thermodynamical evolution and the fragmentation behavior of the cosmological minihalos are similar to that of the artificial cases, especially in those with a similar $\beta_0$-parameter. Protostars with a higher rotation support exhibit spiral-arm-like structures on several scales, and have lower accretion rates. These type of clouds tend to fragment more, while some of the protostars escape from the cluster with the possibility of surviving until the present day. They also take much longer to form compared to their slowly rotating counterparts. We conclude that the use of appropriate initial conditions of the gas in minihalos is a pivotal and decisive quantity to study the evolution and final fate of the primordial stars.