The Initial Mass Function of the First Stars
Jennifer Johnson (The Ohio State University)
Stars formed in the early Universe under very different conditions than
they do today. Current theoretical models strongly favor an initial
mass function peaked toward high mass stars, a prediction that affects
reionization, the number of high-redshift supernovae, and the
pollution of the primordial interstellar gas. Observing the Galaxy
as it was 13 billion years ago is an interesting challenge, and
there are several indirect methods of getting information on
stars, even those that have long since died. I will review our
observational evidence about the IMF of the first stars, focusing
on supernova yields for high-mass stars, asymptotic giant branch mass
transfer events for intermediate-mass stars, and the metallicity
distribution function of halo stars for low-mass stars. These results
support the lack of low-mass star formation, but argue against the
formation of large numbers of stars with masses greater than 100 solar
masses.