Recovery from Population III supernova explosions and the onset of second-generation star formation

We use cosmological simulations to assess how the explosion of the first stars in supernovae (SNe) influences early cosmic history. Specifically, we investigate the impact by SNe on the host systems for Population III (Pop III) star formation and explore its dependence on halo environment and Pop III progenitor mass. We then trace the evolution of the enriched gas un-til conditions are met to trigger second-generation star formation. To this extent, we quantify the recovery timescale, which measures the time delay between a Pop III SN explosion and the appearance of cold, dense gas, out of which second-generation stars can form. We find that this timescale is highly sensitive to the Pop III progenitor mass, and less so to the halo environment. For Pop III progenitor masses, M ∗ = 15M, 25M, and 40M in a halo of 5×105M, recovery times are ∼ 10Myr, 25Myr, and 90Myr, respectively. For more massive progenitors, including those exploding in pair instability SNe, second-generation star forma-tion is delayed significantly, for up to a Hubble time. The dependence of the recovery time on the mass of the SN progenitor is mainly due to the ionizing impact of the progenitor star. Photoionization heating increases the gas pressure and initiates a hydrodynamical response