Population III.1 stars: formation, feedback and evolution of the IMF

TL;DR

This paper reviews current theoretical models of primordial Pop III.1 star formation, highlighting uncertainties and potential effects of dark matter and feedback processes on their mass and evolution.

Contribution

It synthesizes existing theories on Pop III.1 star formation, emphasizing the impact of dark matter annihilation, fragmentation, magnetic fields, and feedback on stellar masses.

Findings

Primordial stars are likely massive (>100 solar masses).

Dark matter annihilation heating can significantly increase stellar masses.

Later minihalos may produce even more massive stars.

Abstract

I discuss current theoretical expectations of how primordial, Pop III.1 stars form. Lack of direct observational constraints makes this a challenging task. In particular predicting the mass of these stars requires solving a series of problems, which all affect, perhaps drastically, the final outcome. While there is general agreement on the initial conditions, H_2-cooled gas at the center of dark matter minihalos, the subsequent evolution is more uncertain. In particular, I describe the potential effects of dark matter annihilation heating, fragmentation within the minihalo, magnetic field amplification, and protostellar ionizing feedback. After these considerations, one expects that the first stars are massive >~100Msun, with dark matter annihilation heating having the potential to raise this scale by large factors. Higher accretion rates in later-forming minihalos may cause the Pop III.1 initial mass function to evolve to higher masses.