A Common Origin for Globular Clusters and Ultra-faint Dwarfs in Simulations of the First Galaxies

Abstract

In this paper, the first in a series on galaxy formation before reionization, we focus on understanding what determines the size and morphology of stellar objects in the first low mass galaxies, using parsec- scale cosmological simulations performed with an adaptive mesh hydrodynamics code. Although the dense gas in which stars are formed tends to have a disk structure, stars are found in spheroids with little rotation. Halos with masses between 10^6 M_sun and 5x10^8 M_sun form stars stochastically, with stellar masses in the range 10^4 M_sun to 2x10^6 M_sun. Nearly independent of stellar mass, we observe a large range of half-light radii for the stars, from a few parsecs to a few hundred parsecs and surface brightnesses and mass-to-light ratios ranging from those typical of globular clusters to ultra-faint dwarfs. In our simulations, stars form in dense stellar clusters with high gas-to-star conversion efficiencies and rather uniform metallicities. A fraction of these clusters remain bound after the gas is removed by feedback, but others are destroyed, and their stars, which typically have velocity dispersions of 20 to 40 km/s, expand until they become bound by the dark matter halo. We thus speculate that the stars in ultra-faint dwarf galaxies may show kinematic and chemical signatures consistent with their origin in a few distinct stellar clusters. On the other hand, some globular clusters may form at the center of primordial dwarf galaxies and may contain dark matter, perhaps detectable in the outer parts.