English

Cosmological Simulation with Population III Stellar Feedback and Metal Enrichment I: Model Description And Convergence Test

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2026-03-04 v3 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

We present a new Pop III + Pop II subgrid framework implemented in the moving-mesh code {\sc arepo}, designed to study the impact of Pop III feedback on star formation in the early universe. The framework combines primordial non-equilibrium chemistry, metal-line cooling, IMF-sampled stellar evolution with SN feedback, and approximate Lyman-Werner (LW) and ionizing radiation transport. We run a suite of 1cMpc/h1c{\rm Mpc}/h box simulations with different initial conditions and resolutions from z=127z=127 to z=10z=10. The highest gas mass and spatial resolution in the fiducial simulation reach 10M\sim10\,{\rm M_{\odot}} and 4pc\sim4\,{\rm pc}, respectively. The model successfully reproduces the Pop II star formation rate density (SFRD) consistent with previous theoretical works across all initial conditions, with only minor variation driven by local halo interactions and LW irradiation. We find that the volume filling factor of metal-enriched gas converges to 1%\sim1\% at z=10z=10. Convergence is achieved once subhalos with Msubhalo106.5MM_{\rm subhalo}\gtrsim 10^{6.5}\,{\rm M_{\odot}} are resolved, and the total stellar mass at z=10z=10 is largely insensitive to initial conditions or the resolution considered in this work. A fiducial simulation requires 104\sim 10^4 CPU hours, making the framework computationally tractable for larger box simulations and enabling future large parameter studies of stellar physics or environment effects such as Pop III IMF variations, X-ray radiation, or the streaming velocity at high redshift.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.12460,
  title  = {Cosmological Simulation with Population III Stellar Feedback and Metal Enrichment I: Model Description And Convergence Test},
  author = {Bocheng Zhu and Liang Gao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.12460},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

21 pages, 12 figures, comments are welcome!