Population III Stars Metallicity

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Early Population III stars were characterized by extremely low metallicity, which necessitated their formation as much larger entities, often exceeding hundreds of solar masses. Metallicity influences stellar formation by affecting cooling processes; without metals, gas clouds remain hotter, leading to higher Jeans masses and consequently larger stars. The discussion raises questions about whether the relationship between metallicity and stellar mass is causal or merely correlational, suggesting other factors may also play a role. A referenced paper provides a comprehensive overview of these dynamics. Understanding the interplay between metallicity and stellar mass is crucial for astrophysical models of early star formation.
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Early Population III stars in the universe were very metal poor if not metal free and were apparently required to be much larger than todays stars, up to hundreds of solar masses, to form. What does the metallicity have to do with this?
 
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Metals can catalyze fusion, metals can emit light and reduce the pressure in gas clouds.
Put everything in a simulation, and you might get some estimate for stellar masses somehow - no idea how this works in detail.
 
Are you sure this is a causation rather than a correlation? Perhaps older stars were larger for some other reason? I can't see how metallicity would have THIS much of a drastic effect on stellar masses, I would suspect there has to be some other cause along with the metallicity.
 
I have no idea Matterwave. I've merely read that the reason super massive stars were the only ones that could form was because of metallicity. Or at least that was what I got from it.
 
I think you can summarize the idea simply: No metals = Less cooling = Higher temperatures = Higher Jeans mass = Higher stellar mass

This seems to be a good overview of the situation (pdf): http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0102503v3.pdf
 
Nice paper, thanks Nick!
 

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