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First Stars III
Contact:
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Poster
Title: Molecular and Metal Cooling in Structure Formation Author(s): Umberto Maio Abstract: Cooling is the main process leading to the condensation of gas in the dark matter potential wells. In a metal free enviroment, the main available coolants are H, He, and H2 and HD molecules; if the plasma is enriched of metals, also these will affect the subsequent structure formation process. We discuss molecule and metal cooling properties, noticing that molecules can play a role in the primordial enviroment and metals after the pollution of the medium from the first stars. In the latter case, the IMF is affected too as, once the metal fraction has reached a critical metalliciy of about 10^{-4}solar, it is supposed to have a transition from a top-heavy IMF to a Salpeter IMF.
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