Metal Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium

The paper (700K)

Color version of Figure 7 (200x200x15 kpc/h slice) (168K)
Color version of Figure 8 (200x200x15 kpc/h slice) (202K)
Color version of Figure 9 (200x200x15 kpc/h slice) (227K)
Color version of Figure 7a (200x200x1 kpc/h slice) (191K)
Color version of Figure 8a (200x200x1 kpc/h slice) (222K)
Color version of Figure 9a (200x200x1 kpc/h slice) (250K)

Explanation

Slices of the gas density (lower row) and the gas temperature (upper row) of comoving dimensions 200x200x15 kpc/h (as in the paper) and 200x200x1 kpc/h (avaliable only at this URL) around the disrupted object at z=11 (Figure 7), z=9 (Figure 8), and z=7 (Figure 9). for runs A1 (left column; without supernovae) and C1 (right column; with supernovae). Stars are shown by white symbols. The small square at the center marks the mean cosmic density for the density panels and T=1000K for the temperature panels.

MPEG video of the process of gas ejection by supernovae:
          small format (0.5MB)           large format (1.9MB)

Explanation

Each frame of this video consists of an image like Figures 7-9. The evolution starts at z=26 (a=0.038) and stops at z=7 (a=0.140). Note the burst of star formation in the right panel just before the ejection. Frames are spaced uniformly in the scale factor with the increment of 0.002.

An example of how the merging metal transport mechanism works (163K)

Explanation

You see three rows each showing two slices throughout the whole computational box: left column shows the gas density, and the right column shows the gas metallicity. Rows corresponds to z=5.4, z=4.9, and z=4.3 from the top to the bottom. Stars are shown with while symbols. A zoom into a merger is shown in the upper right corner of each panel. There are two separate objects at z=5.4 that are undergoing merger at lower redshift. At the lower row at z=4.3 the dark matter and the star components of the smaller object passed close to the center of the larger object, while the gas components of both objects collided in a gigantic shock and merged at the first impact; as the result the stream of high density gas was ejected from the merged object (marked with the white circle in the lower row and pointed to by the arrow). The ejected gas came mostly from the larger object, and was heavily enriched by metals. In the next Hubble time or so it will be dispersed and mixed with the surrounding primeval intergalactic gas, producing high metal abundance even in low density regions lying close to the merged object. But the low density gas far from any merger would still be uncontaminated.