Fully nonadiabatic analysis of vibrational instability of population III stars due to the ε-mechanism

Abstract

A linear nonadiabatic analysis of the vibrational stability of population III main-sequence stars was carried out. It was demonstrated that, in the case of massive stars with M ≳ 5M ⊙, helium burning (triple alpha reaction) starts during the main-sequence stage and produces 12C, leading to the activation of a part of the CNO-cycle. It was found that, despite of that, those stars with M ≲ 13M ⊙ become unstable against the dipole g 1-and g 2-modes due to the ε-mechanism, during the early evolutionary phase at which the pp-chain is still the dominant nuclear energy source. The instability due to the ε-mechanism occurs against g-modes having a large amplitude in the off-centered 3He accumulation shell in the deep interior, and the growth time is much shorter than the evolutionary timescale. This instability is therefore likely to induce mixing in the stellar interior, and have a significant influence on the evolution of these stars. © 2012. Astronomical Society of Japan.