Violence in the Dark Ages

Details Violence in the Dark Ages Violence in the Dark Ages

2002-05-03

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0205054v2

Astrophys.J. 581 (2002) 836-843

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

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

Scientific paper

10.1086/344258

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 $\lesssim10{}^{10}$ 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 $\lesssim10{}^{10}$ M${}_\odot$ objects increases with size, but with a large scatter, reproducing the metallicity-luminosity relation of dwarf galaxies. Galaxies $\gtrsim10{}^{10}$ 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.

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