The collapse of primordial stars: importance of radiation

We simulate the collapse of a primordial protostellar cloud by means of a 1D hydrodynamics code accounting for chemical evolution, radiative transfer and radiation pressure. We find that the role of radiation pressure is negligible throughout the whole simulations, i.e. Until shortly after the formation of a central hydrostatic core. We also estimate the luminosity and the spectrum of such collapsing clouds. The luminosity is initially due to a number of H₂ lines and is of the order of 10^33-34 erg s^-1. It then grows to values ≳10³⁶ erg s^-1 by the time the core forms, and results from both HH lines and continuum radiation. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.