Transition From Population III to Population II Stars

The transition from Population III to Population II stars is determined by the presence of a sufficient amount of metals, in particular, oxygen and carbon. The vastly different yields of these relevant metals between different initial stellar mass functions would then cause such a transition to occur at different times. We show that the transition from Pop III to Pop II stars is likely to occur before the universe can be reionized, if the IMF is entirely very massive stars (M ≥ 140M⊙). A factor of about 10 more ionizing photons would be produced in the case with normal top-heavy IMF (e.g., M ∼ 10− 100M⊙), when such a transition occurs. Thus, a high Thomson optical depth (τe ≥ 0.11− 0.14) may be indication that the Population III stars possess a more conventional top-heavy IMF. Subject headings: stars: abundances — supernovae: general — galaxies: formation — intergalactic medium — cosmology: theory — early universe