Discrimination of heavy elements originating from Pop III stars in z = 3 intergalactic medium

ABSTRACT

We investigate the distribution of metals in the cosmological volume at |$z$| ∼ 3, in particular, provided by massive Population III (Pop III) stars using a cosmological N-body simulation in which a model of Pop III star formation is implemented. Owing to the simulation, we can choose minihaloes where Pop III star formation occurs at |$z$| > 10 and obtain the spatial distribution of the metals at lower redshifts. To evaluate the amount of heavy elements provided by Pop III stars, we consider metal yield of pair-instability or core-collapse supernovae (SNe) explosions of massive stars. By comparing our results to the Illustris-1 simulation, we find that heavy elements provided by Pop III stars often dominate those from galaxies in low-density regions. The median value of the volume averaged metallicity is |$Z\sim 10^{-4.5 - -2} \, \mathrm{Z}_{\odot }$| at the regions. Spectroscopic observations with the next generation telescopes are expected to detect the metals imprinted on quasar spectra.

stars: Population III, intergalactic medium, cosmology: theory