Photoevaporation of Minihalos during Cosmic Reionization: Primordial and
  Metal-Enriched Halos
  The density distribution of the inter-galactic medium is an uncertain but
highly important issue in the study of cosmic reionization. It is expected that
there are abundant gas clouds hosted by low-mass "minihalos" in the early
universe, which act as photon sinks until photoevaporated by the emerging
ultra-violet background (UVB) radiation. We perform a suite of radiation
hydrodynamics simulations to study the photoevaporation of minihalos. Our
simulations follow hydrodynamics, non-equilibrium chemistry, and the associated
cooling processes in a self-consistent manner. We conduct a parametric study by
considering a wide range of gas metallicity ($0\,Z_\odot \leq Z \leq
10^{-3}\,Z_\odot$), halo mass ($10^3 M_\odot \leq M \leq 10^8 M_\odot$), UVB
intensity ($0.01 \leq J_{21} \leq 1$), and turn-on redshift of ionizing sources
($10\leq z_{\rm IN} \leq 20$). We show that small halos are evaporated in a few
tens million years, whereas larger mass halos survive for ten times longer. We
show that the gas mass evolution of a minihalo can be characterized by a
scaling parameter that is given by a combination of the halo mass, background
radiation intensity, and redshift. Efficient radiative cooling in
metal-enriched halos induces fast condensation of the gas to form a dense,
self-shielded core. The cold, dense core can become gravitationally unstable in
halos with high metallicities. Early metal enrichment may allow star formation
in minihalos during cosmic reionization.
