Metallicity Dependence of Molecular Cloud Hierarchical Structure at Early Evolutionary Stages

Abstract

Abstract The formation of molecular clouds out of H i gas is the first step toward star formation. Its metallicity dependence plays a key role in determining star formation throughout cosmic history. Previous theoretical studies with detailed chemical networks calculate thermal equilibrium states and/or thermal evolution under one-zone collapsing background. The molecular cloud formation in reality, however, involves supersonic flows, and thus resolving the cloud internal turbulence/density structure in three dimensions is still essential. We here perform magnetohydrodynamics simulations of 20 km s−1 converging flows of warm neutral medium (WNM) with 1 μG mean magnetic field in the metallicity range from the solar (1.0 Z ⊙) to 0.2 Z ⊙ environment. The cold neutral medium (CNM) clumps form faster with higher metallicity due to more efficient cooling. Meanwhile, their mass functions commonly follow dn / dm ∝ m − 1.7 at three cooling times regardless of the metallicity. Their total turbulence power also commonly shows the Kolmogorov spectrum with its 80% in the solenoidal mode, while the CNM volume alone indicates the transition toward Larson’s law. These similarities measured at the same time in units of the cooling time suggest that the molecular cloud formation directly from the WNM alone requires a longer physical time in a lower-metallicity environment in the 1.0–0.2 Z ⊙ range. To explain the rapid formation of molecular clouds and subsequent massive star formation possibly within ≲10 Myr as observed in the Large/Small Magellanic Clouds, the H i gas already contains CNM volume instead of pure WNM.