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    Cosmological simulation with population III stellar feedback and metal enrichment: Model description and convergence test

    Bocheng Zhu*

    Liang Gao†

    • *Contact author: bochengzhu@outlook.com
    • †Contact author: lgao@bao.ac.cn

    Phys. Rev. D 114, 023007 – Published 6 July, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/b8t3-zw6p

    Abstract

    We present the SPARK (Simulation of Pop III in arepo with Radiation and Kinetic feedback) framework, a new Pop III+Pop II subgrid framework implemented in the moving-mesh code arepo, designed to study the impact of Pop III feedback on star formation in the early Universe. The framework combines primordial nonequilibrium chemistry, metal-line cooling, initial mass function (IMF)-sampled stellar evolution with supernova feedback, and approximate Lyman-Werner (LW) and ionizing radiation transport. We run a suite of 1  cMpc/h box simulations with different initial conditions and resolutions from z=127 to z=10. The highest gas mass and spatial resolution in the fiducial simulation reach ∼10M⊙ and ∼4  pc, respectively. The model successfully reproduces the Pop II star formation rate density consistent with previous theoretical works across all initial conditions, with minor variations mainly driven by local halo interactions and LW irradiation. We find that the volume filling factor of metal-enriched gas converges to ∼0.5–2% at z=10, with scatter driven by stochastic and mixing model variations. Convergence is achieved once subhalos with Msubhalo≳106.5M⊙ are resolved, and the total stellar mass at z=10 is largely insensitive to initial conditions or the resolution considered in this work. A fiducial simulation requires ∼104 CPU hours, making the framework computationally tractable for larger box simulations and enabling future large parameter studies of stellar physics or environment effects such as Pop III IMF variations, x-ray radiation, or the streaming velocity at high redshift.

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