No Arabic abstract
Supermassive primordial stars forming in atomically-cooled halos at $z sim15-20$ are currently thought to be the progenitors of the earliest quasars in the Universe. In this picture, the star evolves under accretion rates of $0.1 - 1$ $M_odot$ yr$^{-1}$ until the general relativistic instability triggers its collapse to a black hole at masses of $sim10^5$ $M_odot$. However, the ability of the accretion flow to sustain such high rates depends crucially on the photospheric properties of the accreting star, because its ionising radiation could reduce or even halt accretion. Here we present new models of supermassive Population III protostars accreting at rates $0.001 - 10$ $M_odot$ yr$^{-1}$, computed with the GENEVA stellar evolution code including general relativistic corrections to the internal structure. We use the polytropic stability criterion to estimate the mass at which the collapse occurs, which has been shown to give a lower limit of the actual mass at collapse in recent hydrodynamic simulations. We find that at accretion rates higher than $0.001$ $M_odot$ yr$^{-1}$ the stars evolve as red, cool supergiants with surface temperatures below $10^4$ K towards masses $>10^5$ $M_odot$, and become blue and hot, with surface temperatures above $10^5$ K, only for rates $lesssim0.001$ $M_odot$ yr$^{-1}$. Compared to previous studies, our results extend the range of masses and accretion rates at which the ionising feedback remains weak, reinforcing the case for direct collapse as the origin of the first quasars.
Extremely metal-poor stars are uniquely informative on the nature of massive Population III stars. Modulo a few elements that vary with stellar evolution, the present-day photospheric abundances observed in extremely metal-poor stars are representative of their natal gas cloud composition. For this reason, the chemistry of extremely metal-poor stars closely reflects the nucleosynthetic yields of supernovae from massive Population III stars. Here we collate detailed abundances of 53 extremely metal-poor stars from the literature and infer the masses of their Population III progenitors. We fit a simple initial mass function to a subset of 29 of theinferred Population III star masses, and find that the mass distribution is well-represented by a power law IMF with exponent $alpha = 2.35^{+0.29}_{-0.24}$. The inferred maximum progenitor mass for supernovae from massive Population III stars is $M_{rm{max}} = 87^{+13}_{-33}$ M$_odot$, and we find no evidence in our sample for a contribution from stars with masses above $sim$120 M$_odot$. The minimum mass is strongly consistent with the theoretical lower mass limit for Population III supernovae. We conclude that the IMF for massive Population III stars is consistent with the initial mass function of present-day massive stars and there may well have formed stars much below the supernova mass limit that could have survived to the present day.
We present the evolutionary models of metal-free stars in the mass range from 0.8 to 1.2 Msun with up-to-date input physics. The evolution is followed to the onset of hydrogen mixing into a convection, driven by the helium flash at red giant or asymptotic giant branch phase. The models of mass M >= 0.9 Msun undergo the central hydrogen flash, triggered by the carbon production due to the 3-alpha reactions. We find that the border of the off-center and central ignition of helium core flash falls between 1.1 and 1.2 Msun; the models of mass M <= 1.1 Msun experience the hydrogen mixing at the tip of red giant branch while the models of M = 1.2 Msun during the helium shell flashes on the asymptotic giant branch. The equation of state for the Coulomb liquid region, where electron conduction and radiation compete, is shown to be important since it affects the thermal state in the helium core and influences the red giant branch evolution. It is also found that the non-resonant term of 3-alpha reactios plays an important role, although it has negligible effect in the evolution of stars of younger populations. We compare our models with the computations by several other sets of authors, to confirm the good agreement except for one study which finds the helium ignition much closer to the center with consequences important for subsequent evolution.
We calculate the neutrino signal from Population III supermassive star collapse using a neutrino transfer code originally developed for core collapse supernovae and massive star collapse. Using this code, we are able to investigate the supermassive star mass range thought to undergo neutrino trapping ($sim 10^4$ M$_odot$), a mass range which has been neglected by previous works because of the difficulty of neutrino transfer. For models in this mass range, we observe a neutrino-sphere with a large radius and low density compared to typical massive star neutrino-spheres. We calculate the neutrino light-curve emitted from this neutrino-sphere. The resulting neutrino luminosity is significantly lower than the results of a previous analytical model. We briefly discuss the possibility of detecting a neutrino burst from a supermassive star or the neutrino background from many supermassive stars and conclude that the former is unlikely with current technology, unless the SMS collapse is located as close as 1 Mpc, while the latter is also unlikely even under very generous assumptions. However, the supermassive star neutrino background is still of interest as it may serve as a source of noise in proposed dark matter direct detection experiments.
We study the observational consequences of several unknown properties of Population III (Pop III) stars using large-scale cosmological simulations that include a subgrid model to track the unresolved mixing of pollutants. Varying the value of the critical metallicity that marks the boundary between Pop III and Population II (Pop II) star formation across 2 dex has a negligible effect on the fraction of Pop III stars formed and the subsequent fraction of Pop III flux from high-redshift galaxies. However, adopting a log normal initial mass function (IMF) for Pop III stars, in place of a baseline Salpeter IMF, results in a Pop III star formation rate density (SFRD) that is 1/4 of the baseline rate. The flux from high-redshift galaxies modeled with this IMF is highly bimodal, resulting in a tiny fraction of $z leq 8$ galaxies with more than 75% of their flux coming from Pop III stars. However, at $z=9$, right before reionization in our simulations, $approx$ 20% of galaxies are Pop III-bright with $m_{rm UV} le 31.4$ mag and at least 75% of their flux generated by Pop III stars . Additionally, the log normal Pop III IMF results in a population of carbon enhanced, metal poor stars in reasonable agreement with MW halo observations. Our analysis supports the conclusion that the Pop III IMF was dominated by stars in the 20-120$M_{odot}$ range that generate SN with carbon-enhanced ejecta.
Observational and theoretical work has now established that the fossil fields of magnetic massive stars are surviving remnants from an earlier event, or an earlier evolutionary phase. However, many important questions remain regarding the effects of these fields on the late stages of stellar evolution, as well as their impact on the core-collapse mechanism and the formation of exotic compact objects such as magnetars and gravitational wave progenitors. There is currently a critical need to incorporate the impact of fossil fields in models of the structure and evolution of magnetic stars, and to determine the evolutionary history of magnetic massive stars. We present a preliminary population study of a cluster of co-evolving stars based on MESA evolutionary tracks that account for the effect of magnetic mass-loss quenching.