Nucleosynthesis of massive metal-free stars

Such stars would have been the first to form after the big bang and may have left a distinctive imprint on the composition of the early universe. When the supernova yields are integrated over a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF), the resulting elemental abundance pattern is qualitatively solar, but with marked deficiencies of odd-Z elements with 7<=Z<=13.

Neglecting the contribution of the neutrino wind from the neutron stars that they form, no appreciable abundances are made for elements heavier than germanium. The computed pattern compares favorably with what has been observed in metal-deficient stars with [Z]<~-3. For the lower mass supernovae considered, the distribution of remnant masses clusters around typical modern neutron star masses, but above 20-30M-{sun}_, with the value depending on explosion energy, black holes are copiously formed by fallback, with a maximum hole mass of ~40M_{sun}_.