1000–10,000 M ⊙ Primordial Stars Created the Nitrogen Excess in GS 3073 at z = 5.55

Abstract

The advent of the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a wealth of new galaxies just a few hundred Myr after the Big Bang, a few of which exhibit unusual N/O ratios that are difficult to explain with stellar populations today. While Wolf–Rayet stars in multiple-burst populations, very massive or rapidly rotating primordial stars, general relativistic explosions of metal-enriched supermassive stars, or the precursors of globular clusters can in principle account for the N excess in the galaxies GN-z11 and CEERS 1019, no known stars or supernovae can explain the far higher N/O ratio of 0.46 in GS 3073 at redshift z = 5.55. Here we show that the extreme N abundances in GS 3073 can be produced by 1000–10,000 M ⊙ primordial (Pop III) stars. We find that these are the only candidates that can account for its large N/O ratios and its C/O and Ne/O ratios. GS 3073 is thus the first conclusive evidence in the fossil abundance record of the existence of supermassive Pop III stars at cosmic dawn.