Population III Star Formation in an X-ray background: II. Protostellar Discs, Multiplicity and Mass Function of the Stars

Abstract

Disc fragmentation plays an important role in determining the number of primordial stars (Pop III stars), their masses, and hence the initial mass function. In this second paper of a series, we explore the effect of uniform FUV H 2 -photodissociating and X-ray radiation backgrounds on the formation of Pop III stars using a grid of high-resolution zoom-in simulations. We find that, in an X-ray background, protostellar discs have lower surface density and higher Toomre 𝑄 parameter, so they are more stable. For this reason, X-ray irradiated discs undergo fewer fragmentations and typically produce either binary systems or low-multiplicity systems. In contrast, the cases with weak or no X-ray irradiation produce systems with a typical multiplicity of 6 ± 3. In addition, the most massive protostar in each system is smaller by roughly a factor of two when the disc is irradiated by X-rays, due to lower accretion rate. With these two effects combined, the initial mass function of fragments becomes more topheavy in a strong X-ray background and is well described by a power-law with slope 1.53 and high-mass cutoff of 61 M . Without X-rays, we find a slope 0.49 and cutoff mass of 229 M . Finally, protostars migrate outward after their formation due to the accretion of high-angular momentum gas from outside and the migration is more frequent and significant in absence of X-ray irradiation.

Detectability of Population III stellar remnants as X-ray binaries from tidal captures in the local Universe

“…Stacy & Bromm 2013;Ryu et al 2015;Kinugawa et al 2014;Belczynski et al 2017;. Actually, recent hydrodynamic simulations of Pop III star formation and N-body simulations of young Pop III groups have found that close binaries of Pop III stars are likely rare due to the expansion of the system by angular momentum conservation during protostellar accretion (Heath & Nixon 2020;Sugimura et al 2020;Park et al 2021). Now we define the NS formation efficiency, 𝑓 NS , as the number of NSs formed per unit Pop III stellar mass.…”