The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The formation of the first low-mass stars from gas with low carbon and oxygen abundances
Open accessAbstract
The first stars in the Universe are predicted to have been much more massive than the Sun. Gravitational condensation, accompanied by cooling of the primordial gas via molecular hydrogen, yields a minimum fragmentation scale of a few hundred solar masses. Numerical simulations indicate that once a gas clump acquires this mass it undergoes a slow, quasi-hydrostatic contraction without further fragmentation; lower-mass stars cannot form. Here we show that as soon as the primordial gas—left over from the Big Bang—is enriched by elements ejected from supernovae to a carbon or oxygen abundance as small as ∼0.01–0.1 per cent of that found in the Sun, cooling by singly ionized carbon or neutral oxygen can lead to the formation of low-mass stars by allowing cloud fragmentation to smaller clumps. This mechanism naturally accommodates the recent discovery of solar-mass stars with unusually low iron abundances (10-5.3 solar) but with relatively high (10-1.3 solar) carbon abundance. The critical abundances that we derive can be used to identify those metal-poor stars in our Galaxy with elemental patterns imprinted by the first supernovae. We also find that the minimum stellar mass at early epochs is partially regulated by the temperature of the cosmic microwave background.
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Cites
The Nucleosynthetic Signature of Population III
Heger, A., & Woosley, S. E. (2002) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/338487 · Cited by 1,669
The Formation of the First Star in the Universe
Abel, T., Bryan, G. L., & Norman, M. L. (2002) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1063991 · Cited by 1,448
First stars V - Abundance patterns from C to Zn and supernova yields in the early Galaxy
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The Formation of the First Stars. I. The Primordial Star‐forming Cloud
Bromm, V., Coppi, P. S., & Larson, R. B. (2002) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/323947 · Cited by 1,078
Self-citationKogut, A., Spergel, D. N., Barnes, C., Bennett, C. L., Halpern, M., Hinshaw, G., Jarosik, N., Limon, M., Meyer, S. S., Page, L., et al. (2003) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1086/377219 · Cited by 938
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Formation of the First Supermassive Black Holes
Bromm, V., & Loeb, A. (2003) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/377529 · Cited by 810
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A stellar relic from the early Milky Way
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First Stars, Very Massive Black Holes, and Metals
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Cited by
The Discovery and Analysis of Very Metal-Poor Stars in the Galaxy
Beers, T. C., & Christlieb, N. (2005) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.42.053102.134057 · Cited by 1,223
Near-Field Cosmology with Extremely Metal-Poor Stars
Frebel, A., & Norris, J. E. (2015) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-082214-122423 · Cited by 533
Metal-Poor Stars and the Chemical Enrichment of the Universe
Frebel, A., & Norris, J. E. (2013) · Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-5612-0_3 · Cited by 72
Metadata
- Authors
- Bromm, V., & Loeb, A.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2003-10
- Volume
- 425
- Issue
- 6960
- Pages
- 812-814
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2060471386
- Cited by
- 441
- References
- 31
- FWCI
- 12.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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