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Figure 11 | Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology

Figure 11

From: The numerical frontier of the high-redshift Universe

Figure 11

Thermodynamic evolution of metal-enriched gas in an atomic cooling halo at \(\pmb{z\simeq16}\) . The panels show the results for metallicities \(Z=10^{-4}\), 10−3, and 10−2 Z⊙, respectively (top to bottom). The gas mass per bin over the entire mass in the box is color-coded from blue (lowest) to red (highest). The dashed red lines show the temperature of the CMB, and the solid black lines on the right-hand side denote the threshold for sink particle formation. In the bottom panel, lines of constant Jeans mass are indicated as well. As the metallicity increases, metal fine-structure cooling allows the gas to cool to lower temperatures. This decreases the characteristic Jeans mass of the fragments, and facilitates the transition from Population III to Population I/II star formation. Adapted from Safranek-Shrader et al. (2014b).

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