THE formation of massive primordial stars in the presence of moderate UV backgrounds

Abstract

Radiative feedback produced by stellar populations played a vital role in early structure formation. In particular, photons below the Lyman limit can escape the star-forming regions and produce a background ultraviolet (UV) flux, which consequently may influence the pristine halos far away from the radiation sources. These photons can quench the formation of molecular hydrogen by photodetachment of H-. In this study, we explore the impact of such UV radiation on fragmentation in massive primordial halos of a few times 10 7 M ⊙. To accomplish this goal, we perform high resolution cosmological simulations for two distinct halos and vary the strength of the impinging background UV field in units of J 21 assuming a blackbody radiation spectrum with a characteristic temperature of T rad = 104 K. We further make use of sink particles to follow the evolution for 10,000 yr after reaching the maximum refinement level. No vigorous fragmentation is observed in UV-illuminated halos while the accretion rate changes according to the thermal properties. Our findings show that a few 102-104 solar mass protostars are formed when halos are irradiated by J 21 = 10-500 at z > 10 and suggest a strong relation between the strength of the UV flux and mass of a protostar. This mode of star formation is quite different from minihalos, as higher accretion rates of about 0.01-0.1 M ⊙ yr-1 are observed by the end of our simulations. The resulting massive stars are potential cradles for the formation of intermediate-mass black holes at earlier cosmic times and contribute to the formation of a global X-ray background. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..