Formation and evolution of the first stars

Determine the chemical products and mass function of the first generation of stars, and establish whether low-mass, long-lived metal-free stars were able to form.

Background

The paper discusses searches for Population III stars and second-generation metal-poor stars whose chemical abundances preserve information about the first stars and their supernovae. Optical spectra typically provide only a limited inventory of elements, whereas UV spectra can reveal additional diagnostic transitions.

High-resolution UV observations are therefore proposed as a way to improve constraints on Population III stellar masses, nucleosynthetic yields, and the possibility of surviving low-mass metal-free stars.

References

Some of the more pressing open questions in this field are: What were the chemical products of the first generation of stars? What was the mass function of the first stars? Were low-mass, long-lived metal-free stars able to form?

— The future of high-resolution UV spectroscopy: Science with a UV Échelle spectrograph on the Habitable Worlds Observatory, or a dedicated mission  (2609.09329 - Cia et al., 8 Sep 2026) in Section 4, subsection “The first stars and the origin of the elements”