First stars. I. Evolution without mass loss

The first generation of stars was formed from primordial gas. Numerical simulations suggest that the first stars were predominantly very massive, with typical masses M≥100M _⊙. These stars were responsible for the reionization of the universe, the initial enrichment of the intergalactic medium with heavy elements, and other cosmological consequences. In this work, we study the structure of Zero Age Main-Sequence stars for a wide mass and metallicity range and the evolution of 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300M _⊙ galactic and pregalactic Pop III very massive stars without mass loss, with metallicity Z=10⁻⁶ and 10⁻⁹, respectively. Using a stellar evolution code, a system of 10 equations together with boundary conditions are solved simultaneously. For the change of chemical composition, which determines the evolution of a star, a diffusion treatment for convection and semiconvection is used. A set of 30 nuclear reactions are solved simultaneously with the stellar structure and evolution equations. Several results on the main sequence, and during the hydrogen and helium burning phases, are described. Low-metallicity massive stars are hotter and more compact and luminous than their metal-enriched counterparts. Due to their high temperatures, pregalactic stars activate sooner the triple alpha reaction self-producing their own heavy elements. Both galactic and pregalactic stars are radiation pressure dominated and evolve below the Eddington luminosity limit with short lifetimes. The physical characteristics of the first stars have significant influence in predictions of the ionizing photon yields from the first luminous objects; also they develop large convective cores with important helium core masses which are important for explosion calculations.