Why does the Milky Way have a metallicity floor?

The prevalence of light element enhancement in the most metal-poor stars is potentially an indication that the Milky Way has a metallicity floor for star formation around ∼10−3.5 Z⊙. We propose that this metallicity floor has its origins in metal-enriched star formation in the minihalos present during the Galaxy’s initial formation. To arrive at this conclusion, we analyze a cosmological radiation hydrodynamics simulation that follows the concurrent evolution of multiple Population III star-forming minihalos. The main driver for the central gas within minihalos is the steady increase in hydrostatic pressure as the halos grow. We incorporate this insight into a hybrid one-zone model that switches between pressure-confined and modified free-fall modes to evolve the gas density with time according to the ratio of the free-fall and sound-crossing timescales. This model is able to accurately reproduce the density and chemo-thermal evolution of the gas in each of the simulated minihalos up to the point of runaway collapse. We then use this model to investigate how the gas responds to the absence of H2. Without metals, the central gas becomes increasingly stable against collapse as it grows to the atomic cooling limit. When metals are present in the halo at a level of ∼10−3.7 Z⊙, however, the gas is able to achieve gravitational instability while still in the minihalo regime. Thus, we conclude that the Galaxy’s metallicity floor is set by the balance within minihalos of gas-phase metal cooling and the radiation background associated with its early formation environment.