1000–10,000 <i>M</i> <sub>⊙</sub> Primordial Stars Created the Nitrogen Excess in GS 3073 at <i>z</i> = 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.
Authors
- Daniel J. Whalen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1463-267X)
- Muhammad Latif (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2480-0988)
- Alexander Heger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3684-1325)
- Devesh Nandal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1927-4397)
Institutions
- United Arab Emirates University (AE)
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
- University of Virginia (US)
- Monash University (AU)
- University of Portsmouth (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Published
- 2025-11-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae1a63
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.62