From dark matter halos to pre-stellar cores: high resolution follow-up of cosmological Lyman–Werner simulations

ABSTRACT Molecular hydrogen allows cooling in primordial gas, facilitating its collapse into Population III stars within halos. Lyman–Werner (LW) radiation from these can escape the halo and delay further star formation by destroying H2 other As cosmological simulations show that increasing background LW field strength increases average mass required for formation, we perform follow-up of selected halos to investigate knock-on effects this has on IMF. We follow 5 each J21 = 0, 0.01, 0.1 strengths, resolving pre-stellar core density 10−6 g cm−3 (1018 cm−3) before inserting sink particles following fragmentation behaviour hundreds years further. find accreted onto sinks end is proportional ∼10−2 pc molecular core, which not correlated initial halo. such, IMFs masses above brown dwarf limit little dependence strength, although they do variance number low-mass clumps formed. range strengths tested here covers most likely values literature, conclude IMF so-called Pop III.2 significantly different population III.1 stars. The therefore remains unchanged until next generation II