The formation of the first stars. I. Mass infall rates, accretion disk structure, and protostellar evolution

We present a theoretical model for primordial star formation. First we describe the structure of the initial gas cores as virialized, quasi-hydrostatic objects in accord with recent high-resolution numerical studies. The accretion rate can then be related to characteristic densities and temperatures that are set by the cooling properties of molecular hydrogen. We allow for rotation of the gas core, assuming angular momentum conservation inside the sonic point of the flow. In the typical case, most mass then reaches the star via an accretion disk. The structure of the inner region of this disk is described with the standard theory of viscous disks, but with allowance for the substantial energies absorbed in ionizing and dissociating the gas. The size of the protostar and its luminosity depend on the accretion rate, the energetics of the accreting gas, and the ability of the radiation to escape from the stellar accretion shock. We combine these models for the infall rate, inner disk structure, and protostellar evolution to predict the radiation field that is the basis for radiative feedback processes acting against infall (second paper in the series). For realistic initial angular momenta, the photosphere of the protostar is much smaller and hotter than in the spherical case, leading to stronger radiative feedback at earlier stages in the evolution. In particular, once the star is older than its Kelvin-Helmholtz time, contraction toward the main sequence causes a rapid increase in ionizing and far-ultraviolet luminosity at masses similar to30 M-circle dot in the fiducial case. Since the cores out of which the first stars formed were much more massive than 30 M-circle dot and since feedback is dynamically unimportant at lower masses, we conclude that the first stars should have had masses greater than or equal to30 M-circle dot.