The Star Formation Factory revisited I. The impact of metallicity on collapsing star-forming clouds

TL;DR

This study investigates how metallicity influences stellar feedback effects during molecular cloud collapse, revealing that lower metallicity prolongs star formation and increases efficiency due to weaker winds and cooling.

Contribution

It introduces a one-dimensional model that explicitly accounts for metallicity-dependent cooling and feedback, highlighting metallicity as a key regulator of star formation in collapsing clouds.

Findings

Lower metallicity clouds have prolonged star formation periods.

Metallicity significantly affects feedback efficiency and cloud evolution.

Shell stalling enhances star formation efficiency at low metallicity.

Abstract

Context. Stellar feedback regulates star formation and shapes the interstellar medium, yet its role during the collapse of molecular clouds remains uncertain over a wide range of initial conditions. Aims. We explore how stellar winds and supernovae influence star formation in collapsing gas clouds that span a broad parameter space in mass, size, and metallicity. Methods. Using a one-dimensional numerical model, we follow the evolution of feedback-driven bubbles produced by embedded clusters, incorporating time-dependent energy and mass injection, self-gravity, integrated cloud collapse, radiative cooling, shell instabilities, and triggered star formation. Our treatment of gas cooling in the hot bubble explicitly accounts for heat transfer across the bubble-shell interface. Results. We find that metallicity acts as a key regulator of feedback, comparable in importance to cloud mass and radius. In low-metallicity clouds, reduced radiative cooling is offset by weaker stellar winds, leading to prolonged star formation and higher efficiencies. Across a substantial portion of parameter space, the expanding shell undergoes a stalling phase that further enhances the star formation efficiency, an outcome that is not observed at higher metallicities. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the diverse properties of star clusters across cosmic time may arise from the metallicity-dependent interplay between stellar feedback and gas cooling.