We perform a large set of radiation hydrodynamics simulations of primordial star formation in a fully cosmological context. a Our statistical sample of 100 First Stars show that the first generation of stars have a wide mass distribution M popIII = 10 ∼ 1000 M ⊙ . We first run cosmological simulations to generate a set of primordial star-forming gas clouds. We then follow protostar formation in each gas cloud and the subsequent protostellar evolution until the gas mass accretion onto the protostar is halted by stellar radiative feedback. The accretion rates differ significantly among the primordial gas clouds which largely determine the final stellar masses. For low accretion rates the growth of a protostar is self-regulated by radiative feedback effects and the final mass is limited to several tens of solar masses. At high accretion rates the protostar's outer envelope continues to expand and the effective surface temperature remains low; such protostars do not exert strong radiative feedback and can grow in excess to one hundred solar masses. The obtained wide mass range suggests that the first stars play a variety of roles in the early universe, by triggering both core-collapse supernovae and pair-instability supernovae as well as by leaving stellar mass black holes. We find certain correlations between the final stellar mass and the physical properties of the star-forming cloud. These correlations can be used to estimate the mass of the first star from the properties of the parent cloud or of the host halo, without following the detailed protostellar evolution.

Metal enrichment by the first-generation (Pop III) stars is the very first step of the matter cycle in the structure formation and it is followed by the formation of extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars. To investigate the enrichment process by the Pop III stars, we carry out a series of numerical simulations including the feedback effects of photoionization and supernovae (SNe) of Pop III stars with a range of masses of minihaloes (MHs), M halo , and Pop III stars, M PopIII . We find that the metal-rich ejecta reaches neighbouring haloes and external enrichment (EE) occurs when the halo binding energy is sufficiently below the SN explosion energy, E SN . The neighbouring haloes are only superficially enriched, and the metallicity of the clouds is [Fe/H] < −5. Otherwise, the SN ejecta falls back and recollapses to form enriched cloud, i.e. internal enrichment (IE) process takes place. In case that a Pop III star explodes as a corecollapse SNe (CCSNe), MHs undergo IE, and the metallicity in the recollapsing region is −5[Fe/H] −3 in most cases. We conclude that IE from a single CCSN can explain the formation of EMP stars. For pair-instability SNe (PISNe), EE takes place for all relevant mass range of MHs, consistent with no observational sign of PISNe among EMP stars.

We investigate the origin of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars starting from the recently discovered [Fe/H] < −7.1 star SMSS J031300. We show that the elemental abundances observed on the surface of SMSS J031300 can be well fit by the yields of faint, metal-free, supernovae (SNe). Using properly calibrated faint SN explosion models, we study, for the first time, the formation of dust grains in such carbon-rich, iron-poor SN ejecta. Calculations are performed assuming both unmixed and uniformly mixed ejecta and taking into account the partial destruction by the SN reverse shock. We find that, due to the paucity of refractory elements beside carbon, amorphous carbon is the only grain species to form, with carbon condensation efficiencies that range between (0.15 and 0.84), resulting in dust yields in the range (0.025-2.25) M . We follow the collapse and fragmentation of a star-forming cloud enriched by the products of these faint SN explosions and we explore the role played by fine structure line cooling and dust cooling. We show that even if grain growth during the collapse has a minor effect of the dust-to-gas ratio, due to C depletion into CO molecules at an early stage of the collapse, the formation of CEMP low-mass stars, such as SMSS J031300, could be triggered by dust cooling and fragmentation. A comparison between model predictions and observations of a sample of C-normal and C-rich metal-poor stars supports the idea that a single common pathway may be responsible for the formation of the first low-mass stars.

Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars are the living fossils with records of chemical enrichment history at the early epoch of galaxy formation. By the recent large observation campaigns, statistical samples of EMP stars have been obtained. This motivates us to reconsider their classification and formation conditions. From the observed lower-limits of carbon and iron abundances of A cr (C) ∼ 6 and [Fe/H] cr ∼ −5 for C-enhanced EMP (CE-EMP) and C-normal EMP (CN-EMP) stars, we confirm that gas cooling by dust thermal emission is indispensable for the fragmentation of their parent clouds to form such low-mass, i.e., long-lived stars, and that the dominant grain species are carbon and silicate, respectively. We constrain the grain radius r cool