Characterization of Population III Stars with Stellar Atmosphere and Evolutionary Modeling and Predictions of their Observability with the JWST

Abstract

Population III stars were the first stars to form after the Big Bang and are believed to have made the earliest contribution to the metal content of the universe beyond the products of the Big Bang nucleosynthesis. These stars are theorized to have had extremely short life spans and therefore would only be observable at high redshifts ( z ≥ 3–17) and faint apparent magnitudes ( m AB ≳ 40). The direct detection of Population III stars therefore remains elusive. However, the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may be capable of detecting stars in the relevant magnitude range in the event of favorable gravitational lensing. Theoretical models are required to interpret these future observations. In this study, new evolutionary models and nonequilibrium model atmospheres were used to characterize the observable properties of zero-age main-sequence Population III stars. The calculated models cover a wide range of possible Population III stellar masses, from the minimum mass predicted by star formation studies to the maximum mass capable of maintaining hydrostatic equilibrium. Synthetic photometry and theoretical color–magnitude diagrams were calculated for the bands of the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the JWST. The final results are compared to the scales of known lensing events and JWST magnitude limits. The purpose of this study is to calculate the observable parameters of Population III stars in the most optimal JWST bands in order to provide a theoretical foundation for anticipated future observations of this stellar population.