Violence in the Dark Ages

Abstract

A wide range of observational and theoretical arguments suggest that the universe experienced a period of heating and metal enrichment, most likely from starbursting dwarf galaxies. Using a hydrodynamic simulation we have conducted a uniquely detailed theoretical investigation of this epoch at the end of the cosmological ``dark ages''. Outflows strip baryons from pre-viralized halos with total masses $\lesssim 10{}^{10}$ M${}_{\odot }$, reducing their number density and the overall star formation rate, while pushing these quantities toward their observed values. We show that the metallicity of $\lesssim 10{}^{10}$ M${}_{\odot }$ objects increases with size, but with a large scatter, reproducing the metallicity-luminosity relation of dwarf galaxies. Galaxies $\gtrsim 10{}^{10}$ M${}_{\odot }$ form with a roughly constant initial metallicity of 10% solar, explaining the observed lack of metal-poor disk stars in these objects. Outflows enrich roughly 20% of the simulation volume, yielding a mean metallicity of 0.3% solar, in agreement with observations of CIV in QSO absorption-line systems.

14 pages, 5 figures, condensed preprint version. Minor revisions included, accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (9)

• Can Photoionization Squelching Resolve the Sub-structure Crisis?
• A Redshift z = 6.56 Galaxy Behind the Cluster Abell 370
• Early Metal Enrichment by Pregalactic Outflows: II. Simulations of Blow-away
• Metal Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium in Cosmological Simulations
• Regulation of the X-ray luminosity of clusters of galaxies by cooling and supernova feedback
• Early Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium and its Feedback on Galaxy Formation
• Spectral Evidence for Widespread Galaxy Outflows at z>4
• Small Scale Structure at High Redshift: III. The Clumpiness of the Intergalactic Medium on Sub-kpc Scales
• Global star formation history: A Local Group perspective

Cited by in corpus (40)

• The First Stars
• Formation of the First Supermassive Black Holes
• Metallicity of the intergalactic medium using pixel statistics. II. The distribution of metals as traced by C IV
• The First Cosmic Structures and their Effects
• Quasar Feedback: the Missing Link in Structure Formation
• On the onset of galactic winds in quiescent star forming galaxies
• Feedback and the fudamental line of low-luminosity LSB/dwarf galaxies
• The First Galaxies: Assembly, Cooling and the Onset of Turbulence
• Three Epochs of Star Formation in the High Redshift Universe
• The Detectability of the First Stars and Their Cluster Enrichment Signatures
• Early Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium and its Feedback on Galaxy Formation
• The First Supernova Explosions: Energetics, Feedback, and Chemical Enrichment
• The Era of Massive Population III Stars: Cosmological Implications and Self-Termination
• Galactic winds in the intergalactic medium
• AGN Feedback Causes Downsizing
• The Enrichment History of Baryons in the Universe
• Signatures of Galactic Superwinds: Inhomogeneous Metal Enrichment of the Lyman Alpha Forest
• Cosmological Implications of the Uncertainty in H- Destruction Rate Coefficients
• The Extended Starformation History of the First Generation of Stars, and the Reionization of Cosmic Hydrogen
• Cosmological Feedback from High-Redshift Dwarf Galaxies
• Semi-analytic Simulations of Galactic Winds: Volume Filling Factor, Ejection of Metals and Parameter Study
• The Spatial Distribution of the Galactic First Stars I: High-Resolution N-body Approach
• The filling factor of intergalactic metals at redshift z=3
• Simulating Supersonic Turbulence in Galaxy Outflows
• The origin of intergalactic metals around Lyman-break galaxies
• The Clustering of Intergalactic Metals
• Satellite galaxies in hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way sized galaxies
• What Can the Distribution of Intergalactic Metals Tell us About the History of Cosmological Enrichment?
• Early Preheating and Galaxy Formation
• Formation of Compact Stellar Clusters by High-Redshift Galaxy Outflows I: Nonequillibrium Coolant Formation
• Anisotropic AGN Outflows and Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium. II. Metallicity
• Triggering the Formation of Halo Globular Clusters with Galaxy Outflows
• Sources for Metals in the Intergalactic Medium
• The G-dwarf problem in the Galaxy
• The impact of galactic winds from LBGs on the Intergalactic Medium
• Toward an Improved Analytical Description of Lagrangian Bias
• Suppression of Dwarf Galaxy Formation by Cosmic Shocks
• Formation of Compact Stellar Clusters by High-Redshift Galaxy Outflows III: Observability and Connection to Halo Globular Clusters
• Formation of Compact Clusters from High Resolution Hybrid Cosmological Simulations
• The G-dwarf problem in the Galactic spheroid